So often, the default answer to “How are you doing?” is “Busy” or maybe even “Crazy, crazy busy.” As Kyle Idleman in his book The End of Me says, “We establish our pecking order based on how little margin there is in our lives.” (Now, that is really sad, but true!)

So, are our lives FILLED or just FULL?

We have all heard these stats before, but consider:

*We spend about 5 hours a day online. That means we spend about 14 years of our lives connected to the internet. Add on TV time, and statistically we stare at a screen for almost 25 years of our lives.

*80% of us check our phones within the first 15 minutes of waking up.

*And 25% of us won’t go to the bathroom without our phone in hand.

Sadly, these kinds of facts just underscore a jammed calendar, a FULL life. But not a FILLED one.

A FILLED life for the believer is only accomplished as we empty ourselves and intentionally make room for the Lord. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with us” (Rev. 3:20).

Consider the instruction in Eph. 5:18 where we are told to “Be filled with the Spirit” and notice that it is a command, not a suggestion. This blessed activity is a must for the believer. We must choose to be open to the Spirit of God invading our lives.

Secondly, please notice that this verse in is the passive tense. Now without getting into the weeds of a 9^th grade English class, this just means that it is something that is done to us, we don’t do it to ourselves. He fills us. We don’t do the filling.

And lastly the tense also tells us that this isn’t a one-time thing. It is something that is meant to be repeated, over and over again. As we submit ourselves to God, He fills us up again. And again. And again.

When life is grand, He yearns to fill us up with His power, His grace and His mercy. When life is tough, He still desires to full us up with His power and grace and mercy.

So, this week, when someone asks you how it’s going, let’s all try to answer a bit differently. Let’s not brag about how stuffed our lives are (indicating how important we are), let’s brag about how God is meeting our needs, showing us the way, and joining us in the journey.

Let’s be FILLED, not just FULL!

(Credit Kyle Idleman and his book The End of Me for these thoughts.)