A chemist was out walking one day, when he remembered that he needed some large empty bottles. Entering the shop of a dealer in such things, he ordered some to be sent to his house.
Soon they were delivered, and his wife and daughter, presuming that they had been sent by mistake, thought it would be a good joke on the chemist when he found that a lot of empty bottles had arrived. They placed one on the dinner-table, as if they had not noticed that it was empty.
The result was not what they anticipated. It was no surprise to the chemist that the bottle was empty. He had ordered empty bottles—why should they be otherwise?
Many people are greatly distressed because they do not find that goodness in themselves which they expected. They long to be different, and they have tried to be, but in vain. They have struggled and prayed, only to meet with repeated disappointment. At last they lose all hope of being what they ought to be. They are just "empty bottles.”
Reader, have you tried to be good, in your own strength, and failed? You are terribly disappointed, and you do not know what to do. Perhaps, then, the story of the empty bottles illustrates the very truth that you need to know.
God has declared His willingness to receive and bless empty sinners, sinners who have no goodness and no strength. It is for such that Christ suffered and died. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." Rom. 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6).
God knows that there is in you neither goodness, nor strength, nor merit of any kind. Your emptiness is no discovery to Him, for it is empty vessels that He seeks, in order to fill them with His love and blessing. It is empty sinners that He invites to come to Him, that He may shower upon them abundance of grace. He says that in you there is no good thing, no power to be different, and that God knows it; but that in Christ there is supreme goodness, and almighty power, and it is all for poor, empty sinners like you!
It is in turning from self to Christ that we are saved. Salvation results from our giving up all hope of self betterment and in putting our whole confidence in the Savior. As His own, there is no good thing that God will withhold from your soul. He will forgive you and save you; He will make you His child; He has every spiritual blessing for you, But all is to be round in Christ.
Trusting in Christ, you receive not only the forgiveness of your many sins, but the gift of the Holy Spirit, to dwell in you, and to be power in you for a life that will be pleasing to God. The Holy Spirit, however, helps no one on the line of self-improvement. He directs our thoughts to Christ, and thus leads us day by day to the great Source of all good.
I beseech you then, reader, to give up all hope of making yourself what you ought to be, or finding in yourself that which you desire. Make the acquaintance of the Savior; receive Him, and in Him you will find your all sufficiency.