This may sound like a strange way to describe a person, but if you think about it carefully, it is actually very accurate. Every container is created for one purpose—to hold something. A container without content has little value because its purpose is incomplete until it is filled.
In the same way, every human being has an inner vacuum that desires to be filled. There is something within us that constantly longs for meaning, purpose, and connection with something greater than ourselves.
Whether people realize it or not, that inner vacuum pushes humanity to search for the divine. This is why throughout history human beings have always sought something to worship. Some people fill that vacuum with idols, philosophies, money, power, or pleasure. Others seek to fill it with God.
But the truth is this: every human life will be filled with something.
We already know that a container is a vessel that carries content. In the same way, you are a vessel.
What gives value to a container is the content it carries. If the content inside a container is bad or undesirable, the vessel itself becomes useless. But if the content is good, the container becomes valuable and needed.
No matter how beautiful or strong a water container is, if the water inside it is polluted, no one will want it. As a matter of fact, most containers are discarded once their content has been used up. We will talk more about discarded containers later.
Think about this for a moment: what would happen if a man spends all his time beautifying the container while the content inside it is not valuable?
Will either the container or the content be desired?
This is exactly what many of us do today. We focus almost entirely on the container. We worry about what people say about us, what we wear, what we eat, how much money we make, and how others perceive us. Yet we give little or no attention to the content of our lives.
But your content is far more important than your container.
Let me ask you again: do you pay attention to your content?
Your value is directly connected to the value of the content you carry. If the content is not valuable, the container itself becomes useless.
However, there is something that makes human containers different from ordinary containers: your will.
You have the ability to decide what content will fill your life.
In the natural world, people usually design containers to fit the content they want to carry. Manufacturers carefully produce containers that match the kind of product they intend to deliver. And when people choose containers, they select the one that best suits the content they want.
Once a container is created, it has no right to decide what content will be placed inside it. If the producer decides to change the content the container was originally designed for, the container cannot protest. It cannot ask, “Why are you using me for something else instead of what you created me for?”
In other words, inanimate containers have no authority over their content.
But this is not the case with human beings.
Human beings have the right to decide what content will fill their lives. God has given us this freedom. One day we will be judged for the kind of content we allowed our lives to carry.
So when someone claims that they have no control over what is happening in their life, that is not completely true. Every person has the ability to choose what they allow to fill their life.
There are only two kinds of content that can ultimately fill a human life: God or the devil. Good or evil.
Many people choose to allow the devil to fill their container. When that happens, the results become visible in their lives. Wickedness, envy, hatred, fornication, drunkenness, malice, and many other destructive behaviors begin to appear.
These behaviors are the outward manifestations of the devil’s content in a human life.
Someone once observed that if you remove the letter D from the word devil, you are left with evil. Wherever the devil operates, evil eventually follows.
But when a person allows God to fill their life, the results are completely different.
God produces a godly lifestyle. The person begins to manifest love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, humility, and self-control.
A life filled with God will move toward peace because God is the Prince of Peace. Goodness surrounds a person who carries God because God Himself is good.
The good news is that every human being can decide which content will fill their life—God or the devil.
But there is something important to understand about this freedom.
While we have the right to choose our content, we do not have the right to choose the consequences of that choice.
The consequences come automatically with whatever content we allow into our lives.
If a man chooses the devil and his life begins to go in a direction he does not like, he cannot simply reject the outcome. The only way to change the outcome is to change the content.
The direction of your life—whether it ends well or poorly—is determined by the content you choose to carry.
Earlier we mentioned that containers are often discarded once their content has been used.
This raises an important question: what happens to human vessels after their content has finished using them?
Let us first look at what the devil does with the vessels he uses.
When the devil finishes using a vessel, he discards it. His ultimate intention is destruction. He uses the vessel to expand his influence, spread wickedness, and draw others into his purpose. But once he is finished, he abandons the vessel.
Some people are discarded through early death. Others are discarded through shame and disgrace. Some are left to suffer in sickness, addiction, or misery. But the final destination for the devil’s vessels is destruction and eternal separation from God in hell fire.
The devil does not value human life because he did not create it. He does not understand what it took to create a human being, so human life has little worth to him.
If the devil is using someone today, they should not rejoice. He is only preparing them for destruction. For some people, that destruction even begins while they are still alive.
But God treats His vessels very differently.
God never discards the vessels He uses because He created them. His desire is for His vessels to be useful in this world and then spend eternity with Him in heaven.
This is why God declares clearly in Scripture:
Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
God’s desire for every human being is to enjoy a relationship with Him here on earth and then continue that relationship with Him forever in eternity.
So now we return to the most important question of all.
Take a moment and examine your life carefully.
Your words reveal it.
Your actions reveal it.
Your choices reveal it.
What is the content of your container?
Because one day the value of the container will be revealed by the content it carried.
And when that day comes, only one question will truly matter:
What filled your life?
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