Filling the Gap

"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." – Jeremiah 2:13

Have you ever found yourself doing things you don’t even like just to be accepted by someone else? Maybe it’s the way you dress, how you talk, or even the way you act. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of trying to be what someone else wants you to be. You start thinking if you can just change yourself to fit their standards, maybe you’ll finally be good enough, loved enough, accepted enough.

It doesn’t just happen in dating. It happens in friendships, in families, in every relationship where you feel the pressure to be someone you’re not. And the worst part is when you start believing that you’re only valuable if you can fit someone else’s expectations.

Then there’s co-dependency. That’s where things get even messier. Sometimes you try to find value by being someone else’s savior. You get so caught up in helping them fix their issues that you forget about the brokenness in your own life.

It’s not that you don’t care about them, but somehow, by being the one to rescue them, you feel like you have a purpose. But what’s really happening is you’re trying to fill a gap in your own heart by being their answer. You’re helping them depend on you instead of pointing them to God. And in the process, you end up neglecting the healing you need for yourself.

And then there are those moments of deep pain when you try to escape the hurt any way you can. Maybe it’s distractions. Maybe it’s addiction. Maybe it’s something as destructive as self-harm. A few years ago, I talked to someone who struggled with cutting. She explained that the pain she inflicted on herself was a way to distract her from the pain she was feeling inside. It was easier to focus on the physical pain she could see than the emotional pain she couldn’t.

All of these things are broken attempts to fill a gap that only God can fill. Jeremiah 2:13 describes it perfectly. People try to dig their own wells, trying to find satisfaction and healing in things that will never hold water. And if you’re honest with yourself, you know those things aren’t working.

What are you using to fill the gap? Are you trying to find value, healing, or peace in things that can never satisfy? It’s time to stop digging broken wells and start letting the One who gives living water fill the gaps.