When someone is newly sober after living a lifestyle of addiction, they’re told to fill the hole left by the absence of the harmful substance with something else, something fulfilling and consuming. They still have a lot of brain space, time, energy, etc., that needs to be directed somewhere. You can’t just walk away from addiction and then sit around doing nothing. That would put the spotlight on what you’re missing out on! You’d move through life keenly aware that it is no longer there. Life can’t become a continual blank slate. Otherwise, when the temptation to return to that addiction comes back, and you have nothing to prevent it from taking over your life, nothing to protect you, the addiction tends to hit harder than before. There can be a similar scenario in our spiritual lives. We may hear about God, get excited about His forgiveness, stop some of our bad habits, start going to church, help the homeless, and put money in the donation boxes but somehow never develop a relationship with Jesus. When we do this, we leave ourselves empty and vulnerable to worldly methods of solving that ache, that emptiness, in our soul. And people who turn to worldly solutions for their spiritual problems generally end up worse off than when they started. Many people don’t realize that even religion will leave you empty. They see external religious practices as a sign of an inner relationship with Jesus, but the two don’t always go together. Those practices often focus on the outer religious self, while the inner self is left all alone. And when you’re all cleaned out, there’s space for anything to come in. Doing what seems like all the right things won’t fill you, and cramming other fixes into your life won’t mend you—but a relationship with Jesus will transform you.

Consider these questions as you reflect on today’s reading:

In your own words, what is the lesson that Jesus is teaching in this passage?

What does it signify that the former home of the defiling spirit is still empty?

Have you ever tried to solve a spiritual problem with an earthly remedy? If so, what was the result? How might you have addressed it in a spiritual way instead?