The Lord Is In This Place

The Lord is in this place, so often we forget this, the pain of our circumstances blind us. Our regrets, our disappointments steal our focus. We beg for validation, for hope, for someone to see our hurt and care enough to do something, to fix it- but we are looking for the answer in all the wrong places. We're begging for our friends, our family, our culture, our social media channels to fill us, to validate us but they can't. These things can't meet that need; they can't love us like we want because they often times don't even like themselves. They can't fix us because that was never their purpose, they were never meant to meet that need.

Our phone, our social media was never meant to validate us, the number of likes we get was never meant to be the place where we find our worth. Our creator declares our worth and nothing can change that. When we have His approval we don't need theirs; we don't need them to prop us up. But sometimes we let something else become the center of our lives, we allow it to take God's place, and suddenly there is this empty place, and our vision gets a little blurry. Before we know it, we're chasing after things that were never meant to fill that gap. We start seeking fulfillment and validation in the wrong places. The number of likes we get defines us, others opinions declare who we are and the truth is lost beneath the weight of trying to make ourselves feel like we matter.

We keep trying to shove things into the yawning chasm, to feed the hungry monster but it's never satisfied. No matter how much we feed it, it's always hungry, and so we constantly need people to tell us we're good enough, that we matter, that we have a purpose, that they like us. For a moment we think it will be enough, but it never is. No diet can quench it; no relationship can fill it, no praise can stop it because we are trying to fill it with the wrong thing and so the cycle rages on, and we beg for more and more. Please fill me up, tell me I'm enough. Tell me I look nice, tell me I am worth something. Tell me I did a good job...

The devil doesn't mind if you beg, as long as you begging for the wrong thing because he knows as long as you are looking for what you can only find in God from the world around you will never be filled.

Anytime that Jesus becomes out of focus in our life, anytime that He is shifted out of his rightful place, we become blind, begging like the man in Mark 10:46-52 for someone to give us a handout, to fill that chasm in our lives.

Every day he would pick up his coat, and go out to beg. This coat was unique; it was given out to signify that he was indeed a beggar, that he couldn't work, that he had nothing to offer, that he had no purpose. It declared to all who and what he was. Every time he picked up this coat e was reminded of the fact that he was useless, nothing could change that. Nothing could fill that gap, and so he does the only thing he can, he begs. But one day Jesus showed up at his town, the bible says that when this man heard that Jesus was there, he began to shout. He started to cry out begging for Jesus but the people around him shushed. The same people that had been giving him a handout were the ones trying to keep him from The One that could fill that gap.

Sometimes we have good friends, but they aren't good for us, and they keep shackled to the broken places. They help us on with our coats, but they prevent us from running to the one that can restore our vision. Sometimes the very people we thought would fill you up, are the ones that are telling you to be quiet when you reach the point where you cry out for Him. Don't let them hold you back, your worth isn't tied to their opinion. Your purpose isn't fulfilled through them. They can not sit on the throne of your heart, that spots taken. The one who can restore your sight is here, don't let them silence you. Their opinions don't matter because you're not serving them, you don't need them to fill that gap because that His place.

Every day we pick up our "coats," our need for the world to tell us we're enough, that we're worth something, to make us feel important. We carry around the emptiness of seeking validation from the world and looking for hope in the wrong places. The truth is the world can never make you feel enough; it can never make you feel like you have worth. It can never fill that chasm that you keep asking it to feed. As long as God is out of focus, nothing can fill that place. Nothing can take away that pain but Him. We can't keep wearing our coats and hold our hands out to the world, begging it to fill us and expect anything to change.

This man stopped begging from the people around him and started begging for Jesus, and when the people told him to be quiet, he cried all the louder. How many of us need to do some crying? How many of us need to dethrone some things, some people, and put God back on the throne?

What He wants to do in your life is so much bigger than that coat, that chasm you are trying to fill is nothing compared to Him.

I'm struck by verse 51, Jesus asks the blind man what he wants Jesus to do for him. See Jesus already knew the answer, it wasn't an accident that Jesus just happened to be on that road on that day. But sometimes we need to recognize our need so He can fix our vision. Sometimes we have to beg for Him, so we'll realize that he's always been in this place, that He is the answer. He is the one that sits on the throne of our lives, not people, not our number of likes, just Him. He is the one that makes us enough; He is the one that fulfills us, He is the one that validates us. The Lord is in this place that we couldn't fill on our own. Sometimes, we have to recognize our need so that we too will say Lord I want to see.

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