Messes To Masterpieces

And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. 1Sa 1:15

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. Job 30:16

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Miracles are relevant and only manifest themselves in the midst of impossible situations.

For Hannah it was the cry to heal a barren womb. For Job it was a plea for deliverance from the depths of extinction while facing harrowing circumstances. They both poured out their souls in response to the circumstances they found themselves in.

Have you or have you ever witnessed someone being “poured out” before God where nothing short of a miracle could rectify a situation? Has God ever come through for you at the last possible moment when it looked like an otherwise hopeless situation was about to implode?

Several years ago a family member was in a coma and on life support. The doctor inquired if the father and mother had the life insurance papers in order. It was that desperate of a situation. A request for prayer was made, and miraculously the next morning the daughter came out of the coma and made a full recovery.

Why? Because someone “poured out” their heart to God, God heard it and answered the prayer.

On another occasion, a lady lay in a bed at Johns Hopkins hospital with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Very little hope was given for recovery or any reason given to believe longevity was a liable consideration. Again, prayer was made in the name of Jesus and she miraculously left the hospital a short time later and lived many years cancer-free.

Why? Because someone “poured out” their heart to God and He answered the cry.

Being “poured out” gets God’s attention like nothing else will. It empties the soul of pretense, self-will and purges our spirit of doubt and unbelief with the urgency of desperation.

It is interesting to note that sometimes with God it is only when nothing is left that He can then start to do “something” within our emptiness.

With God it is always the lack that creates the greatest impact.

Broken Pieces

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51:17

Jesus is interested in the broken pieces, things that appear to be nothing and of little significance in our estimation:

And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Joh 6:11-12

After the loves were broken, the pieces that remained mattered to Jesus. He did not want any of them to “be lost”. Why? Broken things, things that he makes, can be put back together and used again – like us.

When all we have to offer God is our brokenness, He in turn takes the pieces of our life and turns them into something he can use.

Such it is with what we pour out. God has a way of gathering the pieces we scatter over the ground of our lives and pick them back up to be used again in another application to fulfill His divine purposes.

The Power of Nothing

Recall the O.T. account of the widow at Zarephath who was down to her last meal. We know the story:

And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 1Ki 17:12

The man of God asked her to give him the last meal and trust that God would honor the sacrifice. That is exactly what happened. She gave Elijah her last meal and from that time forward her barrel of meal and cruse of oil was never empty until the famine lifted. God continually supplied her need.

And in the N.T. we read about someone else who was left with nothing:

And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. Luk 16:20-21

Materialistically speaking, Lazarus had nothing. A high point of his day was when he found a chicken nugget-sized tidbit in the rich man’s trash can and not the typical meal fragments that were his usual treasure.

Yet, it was Lazarus’ “nothing” that was the difference between him going to heaven and the rich man’s “everything” that prevented him from everlasting life. The power of nothing.

A world renown string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, Erik Verlinde, has written a paper postulating that gravity, the fundamental force that permeates our universe, is not a tangible, identifiable  force. He states that “gravity doesn’t exist”. You read correctly, gravity is essentially …. nothing.

If man (i.e., mankind) would read the book written by the Master Architect he would have discovered that this mystery was recorded a long time ago in the Book of Job:

He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Job 26:7

The power of nothing. When all we have is nothing, we may be in just the right place for God to start something miraculous in our lives.

If  God can hold the universe together with “nothing”, can you think of what He can do with your or my “nothing”? Is there anything too hard for the Lord to accomplish?

The Spirit is Poured Out

Lastly, Jesus emptied out his soul for one reason – to “pour out” his life’s energy back onto those who would believe on his word and call upon him:

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isa 53:12

And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 10:45

Let us remember the power of nothing when we have poured out our all to God and we have nothing left to give. And then allow the Lord to take our “nothing” so He can “pour out” on us “something” better in return.