The Black Hole of Need

[ This is part of something I wrote just before Christmas.   It is part of a message I like to call Vulnerably Dependent.   I just felt like this needed to be posted, so if it speaks to your heart that is awesome :) ]

One of the fears that keep us from abandoning ourselves fully to God is the fear that the work will be unendurable and the toiling will be too much.   We fear that our lives will lack joy and excitement when just the opposite is true.   Much of the church today speaks of a mundane and an unexciting life while the world lures us into a lie that it will provide the real destiny adventures that we so long for.  It is a trap set by the enemy to keep us wrapped in the safety of the mundane while constantly searching for the adventure God destined us to have. The unending search creates a loop of dissatisfaction and frustration that propels us into what I call the black hole of need.  A black hole of need that can only be filled by God, but because of the lies of the enemy we try and fill it with everything but Him.   

1 John 15-17 The MSG

Don’t love the world’s ways.  Don’t love the world’s good.  Love of the world squeezes out love for the father.  Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father.  It just isolates you from him.   The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out – but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.   

The black hole is a very interesting phenomenon that if allowed tries to become part of our very nature.   The really scary thing about the black hole is that it is just as rampant among non-Christians as it is among Christians.  The black hole tries to tell us that its needs are part of our personality. It interweaves lies into our daily life telling us that when we are stressed we must eat something, buy something, or do something.  When we are sad it tells us how to act and what to immerse ourselves in.  When we are happy it dictates to us how we express happiness.  In the end the black hole of need develops in our lives idols that steal our attention away from God.  If we all truly think about it there are things in our life that we always turn to before we turn to God. There are things in our life that you may be secretly holding on to tighter than God.

It is very uncomfortable to think about. That we modern day Christians would have many idols in our life.  The worldliness in us justifies many of them by telling us that it is responsible, smart, or even normal to hold certain things in such high places in our life. That justification veils our eyes to the truth. 

At this very point you may start feeling like I am trying to condemn you and your behavior, and that really there is no chance of living correctly. These are the lies of the spirit of legalism that seek to destroy even further what God really desires to be in our life. You see the truth is that God desires to be first in every area of your life because He does not want you to live under the burden of making your life mean something.   He does not want you to carry the responsibility of what He has called you to.    Most importantly He wants to experience intimacy with you on levels far beyond what you can imagine, all the time.  God does not want you to be a slave to your cravings, desires, lusts, wants, and needs.   God wants to be your provider, protector, and deliverer.  God wants to give you the desires of your heart.

At the heart of Vulnerably Dependent is the truth that if we allow certain areas of our life to be held higher than Jesus is in our life, then we simply are not living in the blessing or protection of God.   Those areas are automatically open to the enemy to do as he pleases.   It is when we put our hope in these areas, things, people, and dreams where true heartbreak and devastation come in.   A life dependent on God is not void of certain troubles, but the difference is when your heart is all His then He always protects and provides for it.

What seems to be the biggest risk of all, abandoning our selves completely to God, is really what secures us in the safest and most blessed place of all.

In Colossians 1:5-6 in the Message Paul says: “The Message is as true among you today as when you first heard it.  It doesn’t diminish or weaken over time.  It’s the same all over the world.  The Message bears fruit and gets larger and stronger, just as it has in you.”  I love this verse because it says that since the first time we heard the Word of Christ it has been growing larger and stronger all the time.    It is no accident that we as humans always have a desire for more.  More adventure, more people, more meaning, more money, more food, more creativity, more wisdom.  The list could go on forever, but the point is you ARE created for MORE.  In Jesus, dependently, more is not an insatiable word. More is what you were created for.   

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Even if you have been a Christian for twelve years there are times when you have to abandon yourself to Jesus, again. If you are in a season in your life where your heart is always hurting and you feel un-satisfied.  Give Jesus your heart and He will fill it up for you.