On Thursday night, I pulled into our driveway, and my gas light came on. I was officially on “E,” and I hadn’t even noticed. I put the car in park, and thought, I’ll just leave a little early and get fuel on the way to drop Mia and Arie off at their Princess & Knight Camp in the morning. Well, when the next morning rolled around, I completely forgot and drove past two gas stations, without stopping, and then two more as I drove home. I then drove past three more on my way to pick them up and bring them home, before I turned the car around and went to fill my tank with 15 miles to spare I might add.
How does this happen?! Sure, it’s been a stressful week (or couple) to say the least, and every time I had a thought to “fill up my tank,” something subtle, like a phone call, text message, thought, question from a little voice in the backseat, or song request overtook the thought of filling up my tank. It reminded me of my walk with God. My personal goal is to connect with God through His Word and prayer daily, but sometimes I miss a day of reading, and then a day turns into two, which turns into a week, and before I know it, I am running on “E” with very few miles to spare.
Can you relate? With my car, I usually wait until it needs maintenance. But with my faith, I know it needs daily maintenance. When I fail to do that, my anxiety, stress, worry, patience, and peace are all affected in negative ways.
Jesus urges us to remain connected with Him in the following statements throughout John:
“I am the bread of life… No one who comes to be Me will ever be hungry and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again” (6:35).
“I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life” (8:12).
“I am the door of the sheep… If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture” (10:7-9).
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11).
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live” (11:26).
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (14:6).
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper” (15:1).
If we look at these statements through His terms: He is bread. He provides the spiritual nutrients that we need in order to sustain us past the point of our physical bodies.
He’s our light. We will never walk in darkness, because we have eternal life with Him. There is nothing anyone or Satan can do to take us away from that light.
He’s our protector. Shepherds laid their lives down for their flock, and our Shepherd, Jesus, did just that on the cross. He laid His life down so that we could have eternal life.
He’s our resurrection and life. We’ve defeated death through Jesus, and when we take our final breath earthside, we begin our true life in eternity with Him.
He’s the way, the truth, and the life. There’s no other way to God but through Him and the cross.
He’s the vine. He again provides the nutrients for us to be fruitful.
He’s all that we really need. He’s everything that we need. Having routine, daily connection or maintenance with Him, only makes sense. It’s easy to drive right by prayer or our Bibles, because sometimes it’s just a subtle thought, question, phone call, or distraction that diverts our hearts from staying connected in that moment. We think “We’ll do it later…” and when later comes around, we find another subtle distraction, and another, and another, until we’re spiritually running on empty. This week was such a gentle reminder for me of why I need to keep my tank full, both physically and spiritually, especially with three kiddos that I tote around daily.
Friends, as we leave this week and enter a new one, let’s work on routine, daily maintenance in our walk with Christ. Have a good week!
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