Filler Up

When gas stations first opened up in America, they were all full service stations.  As soon as a car entered a gas station, a rubber cord would trigger a bell telling everyone inside or out, their next customer was ready for service.  Workers literally ran to greet you.  Customers would roll down their window manually, cranking a level with their hands.  Meanwhile, outside the car, one attendant would greet you at your window, another immediately began cleaning your front windshield for free, a moment later another asks to check your fluids and oil level with one last servant standing at the pump waiting to hear your order.  Depending upon their vehicle, customers often said, “filler up with leaded or unleaded gasoline.”

As I reflect upon history, I am reminded of C.S. Lewis.  In Mere Christianity, within a chapter called the Shocking Alternative, Lewis devotes this chapter to Free Will.  Lewis compares human beings to a car.  Cars were designed to run on petroleum.  However, if you don’t put the correct fuel in your vehicle, the engine does not run properly.  When individuals try to put alternative fuels into a gasoline or diesel engine, your car will breakdown or result in a destroyed engine.  Likewise, people were designed by God to run on the Holy Spirit.  Therefore, if you try to substitute other resources in place of the Spirit, our own bodies and lives will begin to break down, falling apart.

This leads me to my most important point, when Christians don’t stay connected to Jesus, we die, John 15:1-5.  Often, we get so busy with our own lives that we go through 24 hours periods without filling up on God’s Word.  One of the reasons we 5 Hour Energy Drinks are so popular is that people are substituting powerful drugs in place of the Holy Spirit.  God has reminded me this morning that if I don’t slow down to read God’s Word daily and prayer for strength, I will be running on empty with nothing to give to others that day.  However, when I fill up by meditating on God’s Word, my energy level intensifies, I leave my house with a heavenly mindset and have many things to offer those I encounter.  Therefore, don’t leave home without regularly filling up on the Bible, this can have everlasting results!

by Jay Mankus

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