13 min
1633 In the Blank Spaces BIG Life Devotional | Daily Devotional for Women
-
- Christianity
You know what makes me uncomfortable in a conversation? Pauses. Moments of silence. I fumble to fill those pauses with words. It’s as if I have a personal mission to never allow silence when I’m in a conversation. Do you do this as well? Are you uncomfortable in those moments of dead air? I suppose it makes me a really good podcast host because I always have something to say. You know, now that I think about it, you’ve never once spoken a word back to me here … I do all the talking. Yeah, that’s because I’m a space filler.
I often do the same with my conversations with God. I talk, then I pause for his response and I get nothing. When I get nothing, I’ll start rambling on again. I imagine God must be exhausted after hearing my prayers.
I confess, I struggle with the pauses. But isn’t that where God dwells? Isn’t that where he moves? Isn’t that where he works.
In those empty, blank spaces.
In those spaces we simply can’t fill.
Those spaces left so uncomfortably blank.
Filled with silence and unknown. Filled with step one but no sight of step two. An instruction to go, but no word of when we will come back. There’s just a blank space. A space we try so desperately to fill … but the only sufficiency is God. It’s his space, and he intentionally leaves it blank.
God is calling you somewhere. He’s calling you to fulfill a purpose. He’s calling you to a destiny. And here’s what we often miss … purpose and destiny don’t appear as we imagined.
Purpose look more like blank spaces than mountaintops. START CLIMBING in the blank.
Destiny looks more like an open ended question than a clearly defined plan with action steps. GO WITH QUESTIONS.
In my life it seems I’m only aware of my purpose on the other side of it. I can look back and connect the dots. Oh, now I see how God perfectly aligned that connection for that opportunity so I would be here at this time and seemingly stumble right into that. At the time it all just looked like blank spaces, but there were dots. Dots aligning and connecting. I couldn’t even imagine what God was doing, I just had to be willing to show up in the blank spaces and trust he was working to connect the dots.
Don’t you know that’s what God is doing in your life right now? He’s leading you into these empty places with blank spaces. Open ended questions of which you don’t have the answers. Mountains you don’t know how to climb. And just like those pauses in a conversation bring uncomfortable moments of silence, we must be willing to be uncomfortable. These are spaces we can’t fill on our own.
Sit in it.
Wait for it.
Trust God is doing something only he can do. He hasn’t forgotten you in this blank space where nothing seems to be happening … he’s connecting dots to your destiny.
I love the story of Abraham. His entire life is a story of blind faith where God continually led him into blank spaces, and when Abraham followed God worked. DID YOU GET THAT? WHEN ABRAHAM FOLLOWED, GOD WORKED. There’s a timely instruction for each of us. If you will just follow God, God will work.
In Genesis chapter 12 God speaks to Abraham and says “Go from your land, your realtives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” That’s how the story begins. Leave everything and everyone you know. Go. I will show you. You don’t know where you’re going right now.
You know what makes me uncomfortable in a conversation? Pauses. Moments of silence. I fumble to fill those pauses with words. It’s as if I have a personal mission to never allow silence when I’m in a conversation. Do you do this as well? Are you uncomfortable in those moments of dead air? I suppose it makes me a really good podcast host because I always have something to say. You know, now that I think about it, you’ve never once spoken a word back to me here … I do all the talking. Yeah, that’s because I’m a space filler.
I often do the same with my conversations with God. I talk, then I pause for his response and I get nothing. When I get nothing, I’ll start rambling on again. I imagine God must be exhausted after hearing my prayers.
I confess, I struggle with the pauses. But isn’t that where God dwells? Isn’t that where he moves? Isn’t that where he works.
In those empty, blank spaces.
In those spaces we simply can’t fill.
Those spaces left so uncomfortably blank.
Filled with silence and unknown. Filled with step one but no sight of step two. An instruction to go, but no word of when we will come back. There’s just a blank space. A space we try so desperately to fill … but the only sufficiency is God. It’s his space, and he intentionally leaves it blank.
God is calling you somewhere. He’s calling you to fulfill a purpose. He’s calling you to a destiny. And here’s what we often miss … purpose and destiny don’t appear as we imagined.
Purpose look more like blank spaces than mountaintops. START CLIMBING in the blank.
Destiny looks more like an open ended question than a clearly defined plan with action steps. GO WITH QUESTIONS.
In my life it seems I’m only aware of my purpose on the other side of it. I can look back and connect the dots. Oh, now I see how God perfectly aligned that connection for that opportunity so I would be here at this time and seemingly stumble right into that. At the time it all just looked like blank spaces, but there were dots. Dots aligning and connecting. I couldn’t even imagine what God was doing, I just had to be willing to show up in the blank spaces and trust he was working to connect the dots.
Don’t you know that’s what God is doing in your life right now? He’s leading you into these empty places with blank spaces. Open ended questions of which you don’t have the answers. Mountains you don’t know how to climb. And just like those pauses in a conversation bring uncomfortable moments of silence, we must be willing to be uncomfortable. These are spaces we can’t fill on our own.
Sit in it.
Wait for it.
Trust God is doing something only he can do. He hasn’t forgotten you in this blank space where nothing seems to be happening … he’s connecting dots to your destiny.
I love the story of Abraham. His entire life is a story of blind faith where God continually led him into blank spaces, and when Abraham followed God worked. DID YOU GET THAT? WHEN ABRAHAM FOLLOWED, GOD WORKED. There’s a timely instruction for each of us. If you will just follow God, God will work.
In Genesis chapter 12 God speaks to Abraham and says “Go from your land, your realtives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” That’s how the story begins. Leave everything and everyone you know. Go. I will show you. You don’t know where you’re going right now.
13 min