Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Day 182 - Vacuums

Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society" by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to the audio file.

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"When we lose our identity through long term victimization, victim thinking quickly makes itself available to fill the void and provide an identity."

As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 210.

Nature just can't stand a vacuum. A vacuum happens when a difference in pressure forces one area to be emptied when compared to another. That emptiness acts like an enemy in the natural world. It is the difference in pressure that causes our weather patterns. It is also that difference in pressure that makes airplanes be able to fly. Though pressure differences that can create vacuums happen in our natural world, nature just can't stand a vacuum and tries to fill that vacuum as quickly as possible. 

Same goes for our lives. It is through the pressures of life - those things that work to victimize us - that a vacuum can be exposed in our lives. We can feel an emptiness as a result of the badness that hits us from time to time. When that happens our natural self works hard to fill that emptiness. What does it fill that vacuum with? Sometimes the filling happens as a result of good things like relationship, fellowship, introspection and philanthropy. Other times that emptiness is filled with addictions to work, substances, sex and even ministry. 

Just as nature arbors vacuums, so does God. It has been said that at the center of all mankind is a God shaped vacuum. Trying to fill that vacuum with anything other than Him is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Yet, that's what we try to do with all the things we get involved in to try and fill the emptiness that we all feel from time to time. That's what makes victim thinking such a powerful force in our society today. We have bought into the lie that the emptiness we feel is something we can deal with on our own. 

The more we fail at being able to fill the emptiness in our lives the worse we feel. Stay in that place for too long and our victim thinking ways will ultimately make it possible for us to treat people around us in ways that makes victimization part of their lives as well. We can actually become the pressure our loved ones feel that will make them see and respond to the emptiness they come to recognize in their lives inside as well. And, the cycle goes on and on. Generations of victim thinkers causing victims at every turn. When will the cycle be broken?

I believe the cycle begins to be broken when we start living in the reality of who we are. It is when we stop using this world to try and prove our identity and begin to let God fill that emptiness inside us all with the truth of who we are that we begin to see things change. Victim thinking is nothing more than natures way of filling that void we all have in ways that God never intended. Victor living let's God fill that void in His ways. He wants to fill us so that we can live out our purpose here on earth with as much consistency and power as possible. 

The Apostle Paul says this about God and the filling of that emptiness in our lives. 

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NLT)

I love how Paul started this verse. He said, "I pray..." He didn't command us to do all we can to be filled by God. He didn't even expect God to fill us. He simply prays that God would do what He had done in his life time and time again - come rushing in in ways that couldn't be missed as God's Hand in Paul's life. 

I don't believe Paul is talking about the miracles of provision or restoration or redemption that we all hope happens in our lives. No, I believe Paul had given up on those things being proof of God's existence in His life. He just didn't need God to bail him out in ways that use to be needed to prove God's presence. Paul is talking about a vacuum more profound in his life than what might happen by having a bad day. 

I think Paul knew that God, just like nature hates us to be walking around with an emptiness that might lead us into places where we would look to ourselves or this world for filling. I think he prays to God because Paul knew that God's heart was for us to be filled with Him. That's the only thing that can help us keep the vacuum causing effects of victim thinking from our lives.

So, what's your tank reading these days. Are you filled or do you feel an emptiness that haunts you in life changing ways? Isn't it time to try something different when it comes to filling that emptiness? Isn't it time to just believe what God says about you? Why not let the fact that He calls you His Child be all the proof you need? That's the only filling that has the capability and direction needed to live the life of the victor God has made way for you to live today. 



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