Take the Wheel

Now you’ve pulled into that full service station. You’ve got enough fuel to keep going. You’re ready to get back on the road and keep driving.

You put the key in the ignition and put the car in gear. As you’re about to move your foot from the break to the gas pedal, you look up. The attendant is still standing there. You’re confused. He already did his job of filling your gas tank, and you paid. What else could he possibly want? So you step on the gas and pull out, leaving the attendant standing there.

Why would the attendant still be standing there? There could be two reasons (at least that I can think of). Number one: he wants to talk to you some more, to get to know you more. (Yes, I know that would be strange in today’s society.) Number two: there’s more that he can do to prepare you for your journey.

Now, back to your driving. You've got a full tank of gas. You are fully capable of continuing to drive. Well, at least you thought so. You forgot that you needed power steering fluid. When you try to turn, it's much harder than it should be. Then you look at your windshield. Suddenly, it seems filthy. Even in the few places you can see, it's difficult and obstructed by all the dust and dead flies on the window. You have to slow down drastically to avoid crashing. Then you look down at your dashboard. The oil light is on, and you have no clue how long it's been on. That's when you feel the gears in your car start locking into place. Even though the car has the fuel to keep going, it's resisting movement.

That's when you look up at your rearview mirror. You're still fairly close to the gas station. That's when you see him. The attendant is still sitting there waiting on you. He knows you're about to come back.

Again, that attendant waiting for you to return is God. When you leave your time with Him, He stays. He stays because He wants more time with you. He wants to know you better. And He knows that you need more from Him.

It's important to stay full of God's Love. His Love give you the energy and the ability you need to keep moving. But His Love does so much more than that. In a sense, God's Love can be your fuel, your power steering fluid, your oil and your window cleaner. You just have to let Him work on all those areas of your life.

There are times during your walk with God that you're going to need to change directions. When you're spending time with God, that change of directions is much easier. We're confident in His direction and our ability to hear from Him. We're confident in our ability to follow what He has told us to do. No matter how much resistance we face from other people, God's Love is there to bless us and help us make that turn. It's like our power steering fluid.

No matter where you are in life, you need direction. You need to know when to turn or when to continue in the direction you're headed. But without someone telling you where to go and when, it can get hard. More than one decision might seem like the right one. No decision may seem right. That's another reason we need to spend time with God. He is our window washer. God is the only one who knows where each path will lead us if we take it. So when we listen to Him, He'll make it clear where He wants us to go and how to get there. He'll show us the next step on our journeys. We won't have to slow down to try to figure out where to go. We'll be able to hear His direction right away when we spend time with Him.

Then there's those directions God gives us that we don't want to follow. He tells us something that scares us or that completely goes against all our plans. Or it just doesn't make sense. If we're not spending time with Him, not receiving a continual outpouring of His Love, we'll lock up. Even if we can see where He wants us to go and we can tell that He's making it possible, we resist. We quit moving because we don't want to go where He's taking us. But when we spend time with Him, we learn to trust Him. We know that He Loves us too much to send us somewhere we'll hate or somewhere we won't succeed. We learn to trust that His plans are better than we can imagine and that they're truly good for us. So no matter how much we don't want to, we'll trust His plans and direction, His Love, enough to obey. We won't lock up when He tells us to go those places we don't want to go. We'll run like a well-oiled machine.

God wants to do all that for us. He wants to give us enough Love, wants us to experience His Love, so much so that we stay full. We keep coming back so we stay full of Him. We keep coming back so He can help us through those tough times. So He can give us clear direction. So we'll obey His direction. But He wants more than that.

He wants that time with us so He can have a relationship with us. He never wants us to leave Him. But He knows that we can't just stay in one place forever. And if we did, it would defeat our purpose as His children. We're supposed to be a witness to other people, so we can't always stay alone with God.

That's why God asks to be a constant part of our lives. When we pull away from the station, when we leave that time alone with Him, He still wants to be with us. We need to let Him into the car. And since He's the one who really knows what He's doing anyway, we may as well move over and let Him take the wheel. Let Him not only take care of our lives, but control them. That's when we'll really stay full of Him.

The Cup in Your Hand

Last week, God retaught me the lesson that I need to be filled with more of Him and His Love everyday. Hopefully, this time I actually learned it. But this weekend, I got to go on a retreat, a whole weekend dedicated to letting Him refill me. And He continued to teach me.

If you read what I wrote last week, you know how I compared being filled with God and His Love to a car that is filled with gasoline. Having that quality time with Him is like pulling into the gas station. Now, here's something else to think about. That gas station is full service.

Think about a full service gas station. What do drivers have to do there? They don't have to do anything. All they have to do is tell the attendant what they want, what they need, and allow the attendant to take care of it. All have they have to do is pull into the station. When they pull into the station, the attendant asks them what they need done to the car, and does it. Then they pay the attendant and keep driving.

Being filled with God is really similar. He is a full service God. First we have to take the time and make the effort to spend time with Him. He's waiting there for us. As soon as we get alone with Him, He's ready to come fill us up. He comes to us and waits for us to tell Him what we want and what we need. Once we tell Him, He waits for us to open our hearts to receive from Him. When we do that, He goes to work. He starts filling our hearts and our lives. And it's wonderful.

It's beautiful to know you are full and to be confident that you can continue moving forward until time for the next refilling. It's beautiful to know that you didn't have to expend any energy to fill up. All you had to do was sit back and drink from the cup God holds out to you.

Just like the attendant at the gas station expects payment, God expects something in return to. He asks that you just love Him back. That's all.

Then, you can go out and keep running. Just like a car that leaves the gas station with a full tank can keep driving. You can go out and follow the road God wants you to take. You run the race He has given you. You show people how to get to Him and when it is time, you go back and get refilled. You just make sure that it's before you start running on empty again.

Yep. That's what being filled means.

Fill Me

Ever heard one of those lessons that you seem to have to learn over and over again? Particularly a lesson that costs you the first time, yet you still have to learn it more than once? Maybe a mild lesson of this sort would be that you shouldn't stay out past 1 a.m. when you have a full schedule (starting with an 8 a.m. class) the next day.

Well, I have. In fact, I've been relearning a lesson this week. The sad thing: it's the second time in the last three months that I've had to learn this lesson. And the last time wasn't the first time either. This might only be the second time I've experienced it at this magnitude, but I have lost count of how many times I've had to go through it.

And what makes it even harder to admit that I've had to relearn it again... It's a simple lesson.

I can't run on empty.

It's an easy concept right? When a car runs out of gas it dies. When a runner has no more energy, he stops. Pretty easy to understand. So why is it so hard to apply?

Let's look at this way. If the driver knows his car will die if he or she doesn't put more gas in it, why doesn't he or she put more gas in it? There could be a few reasons. Maybe he's in a hurry and is hoping the gas will last him until he gets to his destination and back to the gas station. Maybe she's out of money and doesn't think she can afford to pay the high price of gas. Maybe he's on a long road trip and passes the last gas station for miles thinking he has enough gas to get to the next one.

Now, let's look at the consequences of these actions. For the man who's in a hurry, what happens? He gets to his destination, but just barely. When it's time to leave and go to the next place, he can't start the car and is late getting everywhere else he is supposed to go that day. How about the woman who doesn't think she has enough money to pay for gas? She gets stuck on the side of the highway and has to call a tow truck, another expense on top of paying for a full tank of gas anyway. What about the guy on the road trip? He gets five miles out of town and has to turn around and walk back to fill up his gas can, only to have to turn the car around long enough to get to the gas station and fill it up again.

How does this apply to my life? I don't have a car, and I've never run out of gas when I was driving. But you see, time alone with Jesus, soaking up His Love is, is my "gas," my "fuel." And even if you don't know it yet, it's yours too.

God wants to spend time with us. Because He Loves us. So He made us so that we would need to spend time with Him too. And we need daily refueling.

We just let so many things get in the way. We get in a hurry, so we don't stop long enough to listen to His voice, to listen to Him telling us He Loves us. We try to save our time by not having quality time with Him. Guess what that means. We stress out more than we did in the first place which just makes us take longer getting done with everything else we need to get done. When we pass up a chance to receive His Love, it often seems to take too long getting to the next natural opportunity, and we have to make the time.

We can't do what God asks to do when we're running on empty. We can't show people His Love without being filled with it ourselves. We can't keep doing His work without the spiritual energy to do so. Loving others, working for God, those things require a continuous pouring out.

And when we're pouring out, we must continuously be refilling. Spending time with Him. Listening to His voice. Thanking Him for the gifts He gives us. Acknowledging the things He does for us. Letting Him wrap us in His arms. Letting Him speak your Love language and taking the time to listen to Him as He does so.

I promise, it's worth it.