We talk about giving “everything” to the Lord. But how often do we speak of giving Him “nothing.” Peter said to Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you.” If we look under the words, we’ll see that the net result of giving everything is having nothing. That's just what Jesus wanted from them! The Son of God does His best work with nothing. He created the heavens and the earth from nothing.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus demonstrates the “nothing” principle. Early on, his mother came to Him with a request for help—their host has run out of wine; they have nothing. Having nothing to work with, Jesus makes mature wine. There are many examples of this “nothingness”: the woman at the well has nothing, symbolically, but empty water pots; Jesus feeds 5,000 who have no food—nothing; Jesus gives sight to a man who was born blind, who could see nothing; and what about the rich young man who comes to Jesus and is told, “go away and come back when you have nothing.”
Even in writing this post, the Lord has shown me how much of my esteem is related to "doing" things . “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal. 6:3). Yikes! Jesus repeatedly said, “I do nothing on my own initiative” (John 5:19; 5:30; 8:28). I think I'm getting it: we think God needs "something" from us to work with. But God wants “nothing” from us.
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