Empty indicates a void. Think of the word futile. It means fruitless, empty, hollow, unreal, unproductive, lacking substance, trifling, ineffectual, and worthless.

Anything we do in our lives void of the Lord will be futile. I heard this analogy years ago. You seek  to climb the ladder of success.  You finally make it to the top and discover that your ladder was against the wrong building. How disheartening!

John 15:5 is a verse that should be a banner over our lives. It says, “I am the vine,  you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Nothing means not one thing. Hmm. 

Living dependent on God is the path of fulfillment. Galatians 5:16 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Before salvation we lived absolutely independent of God. Ephesians 2:3.