Elevation with Steven Furtick - Running On Empty (Holly Furtick)

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Are you running on empty? In this special Mother’s Day message, Holly Furtick of Elevation Church gives this reminder: Even when you feel empty, God‘s faithfulness will never run out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I had to preach to you guys today. You can have a seat if you're here with us. It's been several months since I've been on stage and gotten to speak to you all. But in that time, our pastor has been preaching his heart out as he preached almost every weekend for the first half of this year. But what you don't see is that in the meantime, he's writing songs in his spare time. And he's producing albums that we're playing in our headphones and in our cars and in our homes on repeat. And we got to hear all those songs first here at elevation.

Well, most of them. And some of them were like surprises, but in the sermons of just been, we are so spoiled. In the chat, let me know where you're watching from, and this is like spoiled rotten. And I know my husband already said this, but I want to say, happy Mother's Day in the United States. But you know, here at elevation, we take this day as an opportunity to celebrate all of the women who have impacted our lives. I know that Mother's Day isn't always the easiest day for a lot of us, but on this day, I want us to come and be able to celebrate the women who have quietly led and prayed and modeled their own faith while they were nurturing hours.

And I was actually talking to a woman this week, and she was telling me her story, how she was raised in foster care, and how she came to know Christ as an adult because someone brought her to church, a woman brought her to church. And then years later, in another town, she met another woman who said, oh, you know God, you need to come to my church. And then when she went to that church, the pastor's wife, she said, she just took me under her wing and she taught me about what faith looks like in everyday life. These are the mothers that we celebrate today. The grandmothers who prayed for us, the moms who dragged us to church, the youth pastor's wife or the small girls. group leader who said the same things that our moms were saying to us, but we thought it was so much

better when they said it. The woman who showed you how to be a godly mom or the college Bible study leader, the praying co-worker, like all of these women who have shaped our faith, that's who we celebrate today. So it was invited to a gathering for women in ministry back in March. And while we were in the middle of worship, we were singing, and it wasn't a lot of people, but we were worshipping, and I just, all of a sudden, I felt like the Lord said to me, I want you to preach on the widow with the jars. And so I was, well, okay. And the song wasn't about anything like, and I was like, okay, so I got out my phone and I made myself a note, Widow with the jars, Mother's Day. And so later, when I was remembering that, I thought,

well let me look where is that story the woman with the jars and so it got out my Bible and when I saw that it was in second Kings 4 I remembered all of the amazing sermons that Pastor Stephen has preached on this passage and I was like God really are you sure and so I just said a prayer and it went something like this dear Lord please give all the people this weekend temporary amnesia and let them forget every sermon that Stephen Ferdick has preached on this passage, amen. It's like you've never prayed for a parking space or a test that you didn't study for her. He doesn't always say yes, but he hears our cry. So let's get to the scripture and let's read Second Kings chapter four.

Let's look at this woman. Second Kings chapter four. You know, she doesn't even have a name. The Bible just calls her the widow. She's also a mom. And I'm praying today that this will inspire not just the moms, but the women and the men, all of us. Let's read it together. The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elijah.

Your husband, my servant, is dead. And you know that he revered the Lord, but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elisha replied to her, how can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? your servant has nothing there at all, she said, except a little jar of olive oil. Lord, we come to you on this Mother's Day. And we just want to take a minute. First, God, to just thank you for all of the faith-filled mothers

that you have brought along our paths. Without them, we would not know you. Without their faith, we would not have our own. Thank you, God, that you provide exactly who we need. at every single stage of our lives. We open up our hearts. We want to hear from you today. Open up our eyes.

Let us see the things that you want to speak to us. Holy Spirit, come. Speak to us in that intimate, personal way that you always do. It's in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. So my mom's here today. Happy Mother's Day. Mom, I love you.

I'm about to talk about you. Have you ever thought about all the weird things that you picked up from your mom? Things that seem to be embedded in your psyche that you can never change. Like, okay, so here's one. My mom never pays full price for anything. Like, she's that woman that shops the sale cart at the grocery store. And she just taught me how to find a good bargain. Now, this could be a good or a bad thing depending on how many bargains you find.

But that's just one of the things that my mom. taught me. Another thing that my mom taught me was how to rationalize my fears. We grew up in Florida, and in Florida there's really bad storms all the time. And I remember even during a hurricane, feeling like my mom was not afraid. I felt safe because my mom was not afraid. She might have been afraid, I don't know, but she didn't show it. And she taught me how to handle my fear and how to really think through practically about the things that I was afraid of. But there's one thing that I got from my mom that's caused a little bit of friction in my marriage. And that is my inability to notice when my gas tank is getting low.

You see, Stephen never lets his gas tank drop below a quarter of a tank. And really, he never lets his phone drop. below 50%. I don't know how he does it, but he just likes a full tank of gas. And he just loves it. And every single time that I have been with him getting gas in the 20 plus years that I have known this man, he gets back in the car, he shuts the door, and he takes a breath and he goes, there's nothing like a full tank of gas. And he's not trying to make me laugh. I mean, he just really, it's just extremely satisfying to him. Am I, am I joking? He says it every single time.

So then, me, on the other hand, I just, I don't get it. I'm just perfectly fine with driving after the gas light comes on. I get it from my mom. I have a picture to show you of the van that my mom drove when I was a kid. Anybody else did your parents have a family car like this? There are so many great things about this picture, okay? I just want to leave it up here just so we can soak everything in. Here are my parents looking actually great.

quite stylish and your tennis shoes are really white. It's about 1990 and we are on one of our epic camping vacations. On this particular family vacation, we drove from Miami, Florida to Glacier National Park in Montana, pulling, not pictured, a pop-up camper that my dad bought for a couple hundred dollars and they also thought it was a good idea to bring along our family dog. You can't really see her at start, but she's even in the picture. But this van, it's all about the van. This van was epic. Inside of the van, there were two captain's chairs. There were curtains in this van.

And in the back, there was a table, not a table, a bench that folded down into a bed. But the really special thing about this van, it had two gas tanks. Why do you need to put two gas tanks in a vehicle? I'm not sure, but this car had two gas tanks. tanks. And I have vivid memories. My sisters in here, both my sisters are here today, they will attest to this, of my mom driving in city traffic and saying, oh shoot, girls, we're on empty. And then she would say, let me switch over to the other tank. And she would pull this lever, it would go, and empty too. So then she would, she would turn off the AC and we would have to

roll down the windows and just pray that we made it to the nearest gas station. I do the same thing. Recently, my gas light came on, but I was running late. Another thing I think, my, sorry, mom, I was running late to take one of our kids to a game. And I was like, we ain't got time to get gas. And so I kept driving, and the field was like way out in the middle of nowhere. And so I dropped the kid out. I was like, you got to get out.

So I dropped them off, and I kid you not, I turned off the AC. I don't even know if the AC uses gas, but that's what my mom did. So I turned off the AC and I just prayed that I would make it to the nearest gas station. Today I want to talk to you about running on empty. Have you ever prayed your way to the end of a day and then just felt like you have to do that all over again? Have you ever felt like you cannot be everything that everyone needs you to be? You just have nothing left to give. And it's not just moms who feel this way.

We all have people in our lives who need us. Some of the people in our lives need us to meet their physical needs. Some of them need us to meet their emotional needs. Some people depend on us to bring energy. Some people depend on us to bring that spiritual insight. Some of the people in our lives need food and transportation. And sometimes they need us to do all of that. and provide financially at the same time.

And meanwhile, we're fighting our own battles. And we're wondering how we can make ends meet. And we are, am I not doing enough? Am I enough? And all of these feelings can be really overwhelming, and you can just feel drained. There are days where I feel empty. I feel like I've spent the day leading

and working and trying, trying to be creative, and then I pick up my kids from school, and I have to figure out what we're going to eat, and who has what activities, and if Stephen takes Abby to softball, then I can take the boys to their e-groups, and I'll take Graham first, and then I'll get Elijah, and then tomorrow we have this and this, and this, and at the end of the day, I'm just, I'm just shot. That's one kind of empty, but then there's another kind of empty, and that's the kind where, on top of all of those things, you're carrying an extra way. weight. Maybe you have a health issue and you have migraines. You have to just push through all the time.

Maybe you're grieving. Maybe you're going through a divorce and you just wake up every morning and you open your eyes and you remember the pain of the season that you're in. And you can pretend that everything's okay for a little while, but you're just not sure how much longer you can even do that. And the emptiness suddenly makes you aware of your loneliness. That's where our widow is. Her husband, a good man, is dead. And she has become the thing that women of this period of history dreaded the most. She's a widow. Becoming a widow meant the loss of your livelihood. And your best hope was for one of your sons to care for you. Her sons were too young to care for her.

And now she's going to lose them too because she can't pay her debts. These boys needed her, and she was failing. Have you ever felt the weight of other people needing you? She's out of money. She's out of ideas. She's out of time. And then not to mention a long time ago, she ran out of joy and hope and strength. My heart just goes out to this woman.

This was not the way she thought her life would go. She married a prophet, a man who had devoted his life to God. And when you give your life to God, bad things are not supposed to happen to you, right? I don't know if she was angry, but I'm angry for her. She was faithful, but she was suffering. And she knew things were about to get a lot worse. Have you ever been faithful to God and felt like, you were still just coming up empty? How do you keep going when you feel like you have nothing

left? And this is what I've been wrestling with God this week. What do I do when I feel empty? Maybe your situation isn't life or death like hers, but you know what it feels like to be at the end of yourself and to have people depending on you. You know what it feels like to have tried everything, but your life feels like a never-ending loop of wake, work, sleep. and you have no joy and you have no hope left, and I want you to know this today. God does some of his best work when I feel the most empty. So today, if you're like me and you feel empty, I want to walk you through these seven little verses and share with you what the Lord showed me to do when I feel like I'm running on empty.

And here they are. I'm going to give you all three up front. cry out reach out pour out cry out reach out let's look back

at the first verse the wife of the man from the company of the prophets cried out to elisha your servant my husband is dead and you know that he revered the Lord but now his creditor is coming to take

my two boys as his slaves when you feel empty first thing you have to do is cry out to God seems really simple. But for some reason, this is not the first thing that we do. I'm just going to be honest with you guys. Sometimes when I feel empty, I don't cry out to God

because I'm too busy pretending like everything's okay. And at first I'm like, I'm pretending to myself. It's fine, it's fine. Everything's good. Everything's good. And I think subconsciously I make my life more full so I don't have to feel the emptiness. You ever done this?

And so I say yes to the extra sports team, and I say yes to the wedding shower. I say yes to organizing the neighborhood garage sale. But the thing is, busyness does not remedy emptiness. It might mask it for a little while. But in the end, I only feel more empty. And now I'm also overcommitted and tired and irritable and feeling like no one wants to help me with all the dumb stuff that I said yes to.

And then everything, everyone else says, just gets on my nerves. And so I isolate myself even more. Am I alone up here? Let me know because now I'm isolated and I'm pretending like everything is awesome because I just, I just don't. I don't want to, I don't want to deal with everything.

And so when somebody comes, sees me and they're like, how are you guys doing? I'm like, oh, we're great. Because deep down, I don't really even think that they care that, or maybe, maybe it's not that they don't care, but they, maybe they can't, I don't think they can relate. But then I start believing that no one cares. And now I feel empty and alone. I don't know. I just wonder if this, if this woman tried to pretend like everything was okay.

How long did she keep that up? Everyone knew that she was struggling. Her husband had died. They all knew that. But at least for a little while, she had been able to make ends meet. We know she had debt. Maybe she borrowed money after her husband died,

thinking that somehow, some way she would make it up. We can even infer that she sold off everything of value in her home. But maybe she was able to do that and hide that too. because she's trying to protect her family from shame, trying to protect her children from fear. And she's carrying everything on her own two shoulders. She's trying to be a mom and a dad and failing at both. And so one day she comes to the end of her rope and she cries out to the prophet Elijah.

And so many times in the Bible we see this. phrase, cry out to God. And Peter was walking on water and he began to sink. The Bible tells us that he cried out to Jesus. When the blind man wanted to get healed, he cried out to Jesus. And every single time, what happens? Jesus responds. Psalm 34, David said, the poor man cried out and the Lord saved him out of all his troubles. But why is it? that crying out to God is the last resort instead of my first resort. I think one of the reasons that we don't cry out to God is maybe at our core, we don't believe that he can, or maybe not can, but we don't believe that he will do anything

for us. And maybe you pray before and things got worse. Maybe you ask God to change a situation and it is still the same. And because things didn't turn out the way, way that you had hoped this time maybe you'll add you know what this I'm just going to do it myself I'm just going to muscle this situation I hate it when I do this I hate it because I end up becoming that manipulative controlling complaining woman and then I wonder why nobody wants to be around me and nobody wants to listen to me and nobody understands me the problem with me trying to find in people, what I'm supposed to find in God, is that it just makes me more disappointed in the people in my life, and it's not their fault. So now I'm frustrated with my situation, and I'm

disappointed with the people around me because they don't understand me, and then I wonder why I feel lonely. It's because people were not meant to take the place of God in our lives. There's a space in your life. that only God can fill when you cry out to him. I told you one of the verses in Psalm 34, but Psalm 3417 says, the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them and delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. God hears your cry.

Just let that sink in for a minute. He hears you. He's not ignoring you. And he is going to deliver you. It may not be the way that you imagine. It may not be when you want it to happen, but he will deliver you. And sometimes I think that I prolong my deliverance

simply because I'm just being stubborn and I don't cry out to God. He hears you. He stands by, waiting to deliver you. You know why? Because he's close. What did it say? He's close to the broken hearted. He hears you because he's close. He hears you because he's with you. You may feel alone, but you are not alone. A couple of years ago, we were going through a struggle within our family. And people knew that we were struggling, but they didn't really know how painful it was.

And I remember sitting in our living room on the couch crying. Not crying out to God, just crying. And I started journaling about it. And I got out that journal the other day. I wrote some things in that journal that were really wrong. I told God that I was disappointed. I told God that I was scared. But also in those pages, I would get a verse.

and I would write it down, and I would pray it over the situation. And I said things in that journal to God that I didn't say to anyone else. And then I just got up and went about my day, drive my tears, and kept going. And in the middle of the valley, it didn't necessarily feel like God was with me. I didn't necessarily feel his presence. But this week, when I was reading through the journal, I was just flooded with gratefulness and the realization that he was right there with me in that darkness. He was listening to me.

I was pouring out my heart. He was giving me those verses, and he's with you too. He's close. If you're broken-hearted today, he's close. Look at verse two. Elisha replied to her, how can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? Your servant has nothing at all, she said, except a small jar of olive oil. When she cried out to the prophet, he asked her two questions. Did you see them? The first one I like, how can I help you?

Well God, it's like I said. My husband's dead. They're coming to take my sons away. I need help. I need provision. More specifically, I need to pay off my creditors. You know what? It's okay. And actually, it's important to get really specific with God. Because sometimes I think we cry out to him and we don't even know what we want. What can I do for you? He said. Second question, I don't like as much. What do you have in your house? I think one of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn in my walk with God is that when I do cry out to him, the first thing he wants me to work on is me. And the craziest thing is, when I work on me, slowly, I start to see my situation change. I learned this in my marriage. when I change me

I change us and then I found out it works in all my relationships it works in my job when I change me I change us but most of the time I'm lazy

and I just want God to fix my problems I don't want to participate in the process it's like God just fix him I need a new boss. That's just not how God works. Not in my experience. This widow, she cried out. She needed provision. Provision. Vision. God wanted her to see what she already had. It was something

that seemed insignificant to her. You are always a part of your solution. What do you have in your house? Elisha said, go around and ask all of your neighbors for empty jars. Don't just ask for a few. Okay. So she cried out to God. Then, then she reached out to others. Some of us are really great at reaching out, but we forget to cry out to God first.

others of us will cry out to God all day long, but reach out, none of your business. I want to qualify what reaching out actually means, because we live in a very strange world, and social media has gotten us a little mixed up. Don't hear me say the wrong thing, okay? You can put your prayer updates on your page, but the real people who love you, who pray for you and support you, and ask you how your appointment went, people that are with you on your journey and they are a part of your healing. People will comment on your post replace conversation that this woman went out into the streets of her neighborhood and shouted, I need jars.

Give me all your jars. How do you think she got those jars? She went around and she knocked on each door. Maybe she made up a speech and said the same thing to every single person. That's okay. Hi, guys. I know this seems kind of odd. You know, my husband died and you might imagine I'm having a hard time.

Anyway, the prophet Elijah asked me, to go around and ask for any extra jars that you might have. I know that seems weird, but do you have any lying around that you don't want? Reaching out means sharing something. Even if you say the exact same thing to everyone who asks, reaching out does not mean sharing everything. When you cry out, you say everything. She told the prophet everything, down to the fact that she had,

The only thing of value that she had in the whole world was a little bit of jar, a little bit of oil in a jar. But she went around to her neighbors. She reached out and she asked for some jars. I think one of the things that the enemy has tried to steal from us during this last year is community. One year ago, we went inside our houses, we shut the doors, and the only thing that we had to connect with people were glass screens. but you cannot stay there. If you stay on screens, you're just shouting for jars. Affirm me.

Compliment me. Agree with me. That's not reaching out. This week, I ran into a really, really good friend of mine that I hadn't seen since Christmas. And we've been friends for 15 years. And I knew through Instagram that they were going through a really tough season. This couple has three biological children

and two foster children, and I knew that recently the husband's mom had been diagnosed with ALS, and I knew that they were helping care for the mom. So this past weekend, we run into each other at our kids' sporting events, and we hugged, and I looked her in the eyes, and I said, how's it going?

And she looked at me, and she said, well, mom has moved in with us. She needs round-the-clock care. And honestly, this is the hardest thing that I have ever gone through. But we're good. And, you know, I didn't offer any words of wisdom. I just listened to her. I told her that she was one of the strongest people I know.

And now I know how to pray for them. And now I know I need to check on them. Bring them dinner. Send them door dash, whatever floats your boat. We need face to face in our. with others. There is no substitute for that. And you might not need it now, but have you ever thought that maybe somebody else might need it from you right now? And also, there will come a time in your life, because into every life the rain falls at some point, and you're going to need

to lean on the support of others. They don't need to know everything, but if they don't know anything, how can they offer support? And then you're just going to feel alone. Do not let the enemy tell you that you're alone. You're not alone. That's a lie. What do you have? A little bit of oil and some neighbors.

Verse four. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars. And as each is filled, put it to one side. You see, it's important to reach out and ask for jars. But there comes a time in your life and in your healing process where you have to shut the door and let God work a miracle.

The neighbors knew, but they didn't know. You know, you can be vulnerable with people and still have privacy. I get it. Not everyone needs to know everything. Some of you need to hear that. Not everyone needs to know everything. But there are some people in your life that you can't hide from. Who was with her when she shut the door?

Her sons. Her boys. And I wonder how much her boys knew about their situation. I wonder how much she tried to keep from them. But the thing is, the people close to us, the people who are closest to us, who are watching us fight a battle, what looks, no, what feels like weakness to us, it looks like strength to them.

In her weakest moment, she was building their faith. She left him, the prophet, and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought her the jars, they brought the jars to her, and she kept pouring. I thought I would have my boys come up here and illustrate this. Guys, bring me my jars.

Cry out, reach out. Now it's time to pour out. Let's live in this for a second. All she had was a little bit of oil. And if you think about it, it wasn't enough to do anything with, but it was all she had. And when you're in survival mode, your instinct is to hoard everything you have. Every resource, every dollar, every minute, every word, you keep it to yourself. But the prophet said, poor. Okay, so this is my son Elijah.

He's almost 16. Taller than me. This is our middle child, Graham. He's 13 and also taller than me. I have heels on, but I think you're still taller than me. Okay. Such a weird thing when your children get taller than you. I just can't explain.

So Elijah, you're going to stand here and you're going to hand me the jars. Graham, you're going to stand here and you're going to take the jars from me and put them on the shelf. I love these boys. I love them more than I ever thought possible, and I would do anything for them. But pouring out is scary. What if I pour out and I have nothing left for myself? What if no one recognizes me? What if no one appreciates me?

If you're waiting for to be appreciated, you're going to be waiting a long time. The Prophet said, keep pouring. And sometimes when we feel empty, it's because we feel lost. We feel like maybe we have nothing to contribute. A couple of years ago, 10 years ago, to be exact, I was feeling lost. We had planted our church 15 years ago, and when we did that, I was involved in every single detail. We didn't have enough people, so it was all hands on deck. I was a worship leader, believe it or not.

I was a teacher in E-Kids, and in the very early days of our church, we had staff meeting at my kitchen table. I knew everything that was going on in our church. But as the church grew and we were able to hire more people who could sing and, you know, we were able to buy a table and get an office space for our staff and our family started to grow, I gradually began to step away and take care of our family. And I love being at home with our toddlers, but I felt left out. I felt like everyone else was having a blast without me, and I didn't know anything that was going on anymore. And I just felt like I had nothing to contribute.

And I wanted to be asked to do something, like lead something or organize something, or maybe be on the worship team again, which never happened. I had to have a pity party because no one was picking up on the hints that I was dropping. Have you ever been there before? And I remember one day just realizing, wait a minute, I mean, I don't really have that much time anyway, but I could do what we're asking everyone else in the church to do right now, which was lead an e-group. I didn't have a lot of time, but I had one evening a week. So I started an e-group for young married women, Graham, and I started to pour. Every day.

I was wiping noses, and I was cutting food into tiny little pieces, but every Tuesday night, I was pouring into the women in my homes. You got two. And we talked about how to be a godly wife, and we read books together, and we memorized scripture together. It was just a little thing, but I kept pouring. And that group came to an end, so I started another group, and I poured into them. And then I started another group. And I poured into them.

And then what I had been teaching all those years, I turned it into a little Bible study for the women of our church. That one was a little bit more. And you know, sometimes we go through seasons where the emptiness, so it's more than just the feeling that we don't have purpose. sometimes it's the feeling that you don't have enough to make it. And I know that some of you under the sound of my voice, you're like my friend, and you're going through the hardest thing you've ever been through.

You're fighting for your life. And the word of the Lord for you today is just keep pouring. You have to keep pouring. The miracle, when you're living, move. ...for that you experience God's strength and his grace and the joy that you're pouring with a purpose. She was pouring for those boys.

But she was never pouring from a full jar. She was pouring from a jar that only had a little bit of oil. And if you wait, thanks guys, if you wait until you feel full to pour, you will never experience the power against the miracle of feeling like God is just pouring through you. Sometimes when you pour, it does feel like a sacrifice. A sacrifice that no one will ever see. You know what Jesus said? Luke 638, he said, give, and it will be given unto you.

A good measure. Press it down. Shaken together. Get that jar full because it will. will be running over into your lap. Jesus said, you just keep giving. And I will pour into you. Our instinct says, hold on tightly to everything you have, but Jesus says, just keep giving.

Be generous with your love. Be generous with your time. Be generous with your encouragement. When you feel empty, just keep pulling. So here's how the story ends. When all the jars were full, she said to her sons, bring me another one. But he replied, there's not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God. And he said, go and sell the oil and pay off your debts. You and your sons can live on what's left. Can I give you a bonus point? Live on what's left. You see, when you're in a pouring season, that season where you're fighting for your life, and you just keep your head down, and you keep pouring, you pour when you're tired, you pour when you feel like no one notices.

You pour when everyone else's kids are acting right by yours. You pour when your friend gets pregnant by accident, but you still can't get pregnant on purpose. You pour when someone else gets the promotion. You pour when you need a healing in your own body. And the next thing you know, you made it through another day. You don't know how, but you did. And one day, you turn around and you've got a pantry full of oil to live on. Remember?

Remember that Bible study that I wrote for the women of our church? when we were in the pandemic, my husband and I were just praying about how we could help people during this time. Like, what else could we do? I said, well, I have this little Bible study. So we sent out a message on Facebook and thousands of women from all over the world responded. And for eight weeks, every Tuesday night, They joined me live, and we studied how to be a godly wife.

Somehow you made it through those dark days, but now you see all along through the pain and the confusion and the heartache. You've been stockpiling. She lost her husband. She's not going to get her husband back, but she had something left to live on. Oh, oh, here's that friendship that I made sitting in chemo treatments. And here's the verse that God gave me when I was crying on the couch. And here's the song that I listen to every single day for months. And every time I hear that song, it just reminds me of the faithfulness of God.

And oh, oh, here's that gratitude journal where I learned how to have. to look for the little blessings. I get to live on what's left. A million little miracles. Don't be afraid of the empty spaces. Because empty is where God does his best work. When I look back at the times when I felt the most empty, those were the times when my faith grew the most.

and we get so afraid of being empty that we fail to realize that that's exactly where God wants us to be. God's like, oh, you feel empty? Let's get to work. What do you have? Now we can work with that. There's a song on the new album. You might not have gotten to it yet because it's after talking to Jesus and wait on you and shall not want. So you maybe haven't gotten that far in the album yet. It's called Come Again. And I ask our team to come and sing it because I have literally had it on repeat

for the last two weeks because there's this line in the song that says this empty space is what you wanted all along. So I thought this song might minister to you too. God wants to fill that space in your heart today that only he can fill. He's here. He's right here in this moment. It starts with just crying out.

He hears our cries. He's with us in our most desperate, in our most broken, in our most disappointed moments. He doesn't need you to get it together for him. is I need you to have a full jar of oil. He wants to comfort you where you are right now. He wants to restore your joy. He wants to heal your heart. It starts when you cry out.

Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot, and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.

God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, guaranteed human.