Running on Empty? Here’s What Christ Has Already Prepared for You — Guest Post by Terry Hoggard

This is a guest post by Terry Hoggard. Photo of Terry and Ruthanne below. Explore Terry’s new book, Compassionate Cooperation. Jesus knows exactly what we need when we’re running on empty. And He has provided it all for us. Thanks, Terry, for highlighting what we can do when we feel we’re at the end of ourselves. — Brian

Running on Empty Isn’t the End

There’s a moment most of us know. You’re still moving, still showing up. But something inside has gone quiet. You’re running on empty, and you know it.

The temptation is to push through anyway. But that road leads somewhere predictable: everything becomes either a battle or a burden, and both paths leave us broken.

Christ doesn’t leave us there. He prepares a pathway that renews, refreshes, and releases us back into all He has planned and purposed for us. That pathway has a name … spiritual intimacy. And it begins not with more effort, but with a return.

The Finished Work Is Where We Start

I know this pathway personally. As a child, surrender came easily to me. I wanted to give God my very best. As a young teen, I lost my way.

I didn’t abandon my faith, but I drifted far enough that I felt the weight of spiritual peril. There was a profound urgency that drew me back. I asked Jesus to restore me and make all things new again.

What met me in that moment — and what meets us every time we return — is the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is such good news!

On the cross, Jesus declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30 ESV). That phrase carried a specific weight in the ancient world. It was an accounting term (Greek, tetelestai) meaning the debt is paid in full. Not partially settled. Not pending a review. Finished.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV). He didn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up. He came to us in our worst state and paid everything.

That’s not the starting point for spiritual striving. It’s the foundation for spiritual intimacy.

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The Beautiful Tension: Rest and Press On

Here’s where the Gospel gets beautifully paradoxical. The finished work of Christ is not an invitation to spiritual passivity. It’s the fuel for passionate pursuit.

Paul captures this tension perfectly in Philippians 3:

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own … forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14 ESV).

We aren’t pressing on to earn something. We’re pressing on because something has already been secured.

We don’t run to win His love. We run because we already have it. Can you see how that changes everything about how we pursue Him?

Spiritual intimacy with God is a close, personal relationship defined by knowing Him and being fully known by Him. It’s cultivated through daily prayer, vulnerability, and time in Scripture.

This transforms your heart from the inside out — replacing the exhausting work of rule-keeping with a living desire to trust, obey, and receive His love.

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Six Postures That Carry Us Through

Returning to spiritual intimacy isn’t a single decision. It’s a daily realignment.

These six postures are what that realignment looks like in practice. They carried me through, and I know they will carry you through too.

Standing strong — Not in our own resilience, but anchored in the One who has already overcome. When everything in us wants to quit, we stand in His finished victory.

Focused faith — Faith that fixes its gaze on Christ rather than on circumstances. The goal Paul strains toward isn’t abstract. It’s a Person.

Yielded surrender — The child-like quality I had early and had to find my way back to. Surrender isn’t weakness. It’s the posture that opens us to everything He wants to give.

Embracing divine purpose — Everything we need to walk with Him has been sovereignly crafted for us. We don’t manufacture purpose. We step into it. And that makes all the difference!

Seeking peace — Not the absence of conflict, but the settled confidence that comes from knowing He is at work, even when we can’t see it.

Biblical favor — We approach Him on the merits of Christ’s righteousness, not our own performance. That foundation disarms shame and releases us to ask boldly.

Say Yes to All That He’s Given

The afterglow of the Gospel doesn’t produce complacency. It produces pursuit.

When we truly grasp what was accomplished at the cross, the only natural response is to say yes — yes to restored intimacy, yes to the pressing forward, yes to all that He has prepared and purposed for us.

Friend, if you’re running on empty right now, you don’t need to push harder. You need to return. The debt is paid. The door is open. The invitation stands.

He will renew you. He will refresh you. And He will release you back into the fullness of all He has planned.

I’m in. Are you?

— Terry Hoggard

Terry served as a missionary leader across Europe for almost forty years — providing pastoral leadership in Rome, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Malmö. He built cross-cultural networks, led multicultural congregations, and navigated the kind of complexity most leaders never face.

Terry Hoggard calls it “Compassionate Cooperation” — a process that doesn’t start with strategy or structure, but with you. Your heart. Your relationships. Your capacity to lead collectively.

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