Broken and Empty

by Chadwick Brewer

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:3-4).

Jesus’s first words of teaching, as recorded for us in Matthew, show us that how we come to God truly matters.

A common mindset is that we are largely good people who have made a few mistakes. We need a little polishing, some correction, and a little topping off of good things. We've done some things wrong, but we are good-hearted, and our good outweighs the wrong we have done. We have some things in our ledger against us, but they aren't truly evil, and we shouldn't beat ourselves up about them.

But Jesus shows us how to approach God: empty and broken. Without God, His forgiveness, His guidance, and His restoration, I am spiritually empty and bankrupt. I am to come to Him broken over the separation from God caused by my sins. We are to come broken so He can make us whole. We are to come empty so that He can fill us with His fullness.

If I come believing I am whole, how can I be made whole? If I come believing that I am mostly whole, how can God truly fill me?

Come to God empty and broken. Come dead to be made alive. Come hopeless to be reborn. Come ruined to be renewed. Come a fool to be made wise.