"Fill All My Waste Places"

Recently, in prayer, I found myself praying over and over, 

"Fill all my waste places. Fill all my waste places..."

 

The longer I stayed with this request, the more I cried.

I could see a picture of dry, cracked-open land that had long given up on any hope of water.

"Fill all my waste places."

“For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land— Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away." Isaiah 49: 18

I received the gift of a conversation with someone in my past, and now, with that healing act, that experience can go far away. It can take its proportionate place in my life history and not be an intruder threatening to swallow my 'now'.

"Come like the rain..."

"Fill all my waste places."

 

"Indeed, the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the Lord; Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody." Isaiah 51: 3

Oh, yes, of course. The waste places needed comfort! 
                                   Growth comes out of comforted places.

"Fill all my waste places."

"Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem." Isaiah 52: 9

"Thus says the Lord God, “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt." Ezekiel 36: 33

"Fill all my waste places."

 
Zechariah 9: 11
"As for you, because of the blood of My covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
Return to your fortress, you Prisoners of Hope;
Even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you."


Love,
Marcie Elliott-Smith