Common Sense Adage

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves.  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you - unless indeed you fail the test?" (Galatians 1:5)

Hey Gang,   Did you get the last Gramps Morning Thought and put it up on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator and rear view mirror of your car?  Nooooo!  Let me share a neat little story that I read in a book on prayer.  It was written by Dr. John DeVries, founder of Mission India:

 “Imagine that it’s Sunday morning about ten minutes before worship time at your church and that I’m going to be preaching there.  You notice me pushing a big old car down the road.  It dawns on you that I am the guest preacher, and it’s clear that I’m not going to be there on time.  I’m right in front of a gas station about a five minute drive from the church and I’m passing the station!   You slam on your brakes, hop out of the car, and ask me, “What’s the matter? Why are you pushing your car?

I reply that my car happens to be out of gas.  “Why, then, are you pushing it past the gas station?” you ask.  “Push it into the gas station and fill it up.”  But I protested “I don’t have time to stop for gas, I have only ten minutes left to get to church.  I can’t be distracted by anything.  I must be on my way!”

Do you get the message?  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, those who come to me I will in NO WAY cast out”.  Twenty words that have absolutely no meaning until you plug in your power cord, that was installed when God breathed life into you at conception. 

Years ago, as we were teaching the Seed Planting Parable in a parenting class - that you will reap in your marriage and your children what you sow- a rather rough looking father came up to me and said, "I don't believe in that stuff".  I ask him what stuff that he did not believe, to which he could not give me one example.  My reply, “You don't believe, but you have no idea what is in God's Word then obviously you have not tried the Perfect Parenting Plan,

The point: The gas station has an abundance of what you need at that moment but if you  choose to bypass that source and go your own way, you are going to pay the Piper.  God cannot pull out of you what you need, at that moment, if you have put nothing into your gas tank.

Sooooo, what John DeVries was saying is a very simple analogy -in prayer-less lives, gas tanks are running on empty.  Now hear this old man – God knows our needs and the busyness of our lives. Getting up fifteen minutes early is a sacrifice that He loves and honors.  Make a commitment to find that time and fill your tank for the day even before you hit the shower.

Blessings, 

Gramps