Empty lives

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. (I Peter 1:18-19)

I was reading this passage today and really began to focus in on the words 'the empty life you inherited from your ancestors'. If you have just skipped over those words, like I have so many times, you may not have even realized what this passage points out so vividly. Our life, prior to asking Christ to take control of it, was merely an empty shell that required his intervention in order to be what it was created to become. That empty shell might not have seemed like much to any onlooker but to God, because of his intense love for his creation, it required a 'ransom' in order to redeem it from the emptiness it had inherited.

If you have not heard the truth that man is a 'tri-part being', made up of body, soul, and spirit, then you may not realize that there is a part of you that was created to actually 'house' the presence of God - your spirit. That place within each life is empty until Christ's presence fills it. The 'ransom' has been paid, but there still needs to be an invitation for him to 'enter in'. That may seem a little counter-intuitive according to man's standards of 'doing business'. If a 'ransom price' was established and paid, then the one doing the 'ransoming' has full rights to that which he ransomed, does he not? In terms of your life, there must still be a willingness to receive the gift of that freedom!

God paid the ransom. He has the right to claim us as his own. Yet, he gives us the choice. We can choose to be free, living more than an empty life, or we can choose to continue in our emptiness and wandering. It is indeed a privilege to invite his presence into our lives, but he will not force himself upon us. Some may argue with me today and tell me their life is far from empty, even though they have not invited Christ to fill that spot created just for his presence, but the truth is that they may just not realize that spot is empty yet. God will create a time and a place for them to realize the emptiness of their lives. When he does, the choice is still theirs entirely. They can continue to live empty lives, or be filled to overflowing with his love, grace, and presence. The choice for me was simple. Just sayin!