What can you do when you feel anxious and empty? We struggle to fill that emptiness on our own. But only through Christ can we truly be satisfied.

Do you ever wake up feeling empty? Like there’s this void in your soul? Your life is full. You’re blessed, yet still constantly trying to get that feeling–that gnawing ache to disappear?

I took a survey of my email subscribers and almost every survey listed anxiety as one of their top three struggles. 

Friends, you are not alone! I read your struggles and my heart aches with you to find relief from the anxiety that I know all too well.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon was the wisest and richest King in Israel’s history. He looked at life “under the sun” and found that all worldly pursuits of power, popularity, prestige, and pleasure cannot fill the emptiness we feel inside.

All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.1:8

But once Solomon looked at life from God’s perspective, he learned the deepest satisfaction we can get under the sun is in pursuit of the one who gives our life meaning.

Friends, I’m not sure if our satisfaction can be fully known here on earth until we meet the one who created us. Perhaps the fullness of that satisfaction is felt when we meet our Savior in Heaven where sin and evil are not present.

But I do know that the deepest sense of peace and satisfaction I’ve ever known has been found in pursuing a deeper relationship with Jesus.

We were saved by hope. Hope is the expectation of things not seen. And we hope for Heaven when the author of our salvation brings his children to glory.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:23-25

My 13-year-old daughter told me she feels stressed and anxious and doesn’t even know why. It’s not her homework (she’s still in school), not her friends…but MAYBE it’s the news, she said.

 What can you do when you feel anxious and empty? We struggle to fill that emptiness on our own. But only through Christ can we truly be satisfied.

“Mom, I’m afraid that someone will shoot us. How do I know that won’t happen to me?”

I wish I could promise her that she will never get hurt in this world. But instead, I try and point her in the direction of the one who can give her peace.

I try and give her hope that although we don’t know how the chapters will be written in our life, we do know how the story ends. 

And God’s story ends with justice. With peace. With eternal life for those who believe in Him.

And so we live. We continue. We carry on. We fight to hang onto the hope of eternal life. The hope of heaven where there is no more evil. No more pain. No more loss. No more aching sense of emptiness.

Paul said it best while he was in prison chains in Philippians 1:21

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

So we live for Christ. We live to share the message of hope that evil will not win in the end. Deception won’t win. Truth will win. The truth will set us free!

And so I hug my daughter. I try to ease her fears. I tell her that God loves her and doesn’t want her to be afraid. 

And even if our worst fear comes true and we die, we win because we get to be with Jesus in heaven. Because for us, to die is gain.

And to live is Christ!

That means that in Christ we can live a satisfied, meaningful life. An abundant life. Not an empty, afraid and worried life. But a victorious life. 

Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Living in fear is not living the abundant life. I’ve lived far too much of my life in fear.

Our hope comes from the Lord!

“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” Psalm 39:7

We can wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose and hope. We take that empty feeling and we fill it up as much as we can with the steadfast love of our Savior!

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. Psalm 90:14

 What can you do when you feel anxious and empty? We struggle to fill that emptiness on our own. But only through Christ can we truly be satisfied.

God's love for us is steadfast. It never changes. Click To Tweet

His love fills us up. It’s our living water that quenches our thirst and gives us the ability to rejoice and be glad all of our days!

If you would like to know Jesus as your personal Savior all you have to do is tell Him and open the door of your heart. 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Revelation 3:20

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

Dear Lord, I’m tired of trying to fill up my life on my own. I’m left empty. I need you to fill me. You are my living water. Father, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Thank you for forgiving me. I’m set free from my past and I can start new. I can live an abundant life in you. I want that life. Help me to say no to the empty pleasures that I’ve been seeking to fulfill me. My hope is in you. My peace is in you. I want to live my life for you. Amen

*Please seek the help of a doctor if you feel that your anxiety is not typical or is significantly impacting your quality of life

How has anxiety affected your life? What can you do to fill your soul with the satisfaction found in Christ?

 

Ecclesiastes and Women Living Well

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