This morning, one of my devotions was entitled “When You’re Running on Empty”. And the person shared with us how she liked to cut it close to running on empty when she needed gas for her car. She’d drive her car literally well past the empty light coming on – and on one such instance, she barely made it to the gas station before her car completely stopped.
This past weekend, I had to make a trip to Connecticut. By my map app, it estimated that it was a 62 mile trip from my starting point. My car tells me how many miles I have left based on how much gas I have. I had 95 miles left. Ok, I’m mathematically inclined, so I would have 30 something miles left when I got to my destination, and I would be able to get gas. I just didn’t want to take the effort of stopping before we left, and gas was cheaper in Connecticut anyway. When I was within 2 miles of my destination, I decided to stop to fill up. I looked on my dashboard, and still had 50 something miles left. How?
I proceeded to fill up my tank. Normally, I do mostly local and short distance driving, and my dashboard would read I have about 450 miles on a full tank. When I filled up, and drove back home (another 60+ miles), my car still read that I had 590 miles remaining. How?
You see, I’m learning that you won’t get very far if you are running on empty in your spiritual life. It’s only when you start going longer distances with God that you don’t run out of energy as quickly. When you are running on empty, the simplest thing will wear you out and make you frustrated and make you to want to give up. Now that I’ve been spending more time reading and studying God’s word, I am able to go much farther, and I get frustrated less often. When discouragement comes (and it does), I am able to pull on a verse that I heard – or google something that I need to hear, and usually, I get just the right word at the right moment.
Lord, thank you for your written words that help us to go the distance. Help us not to attempt to go too far without spending time with you and in your word. Help us to make time in our busy schedules to stop and listen to you.