Maintenance


            I just spent my morning waiting in an auto care shop for maintenance to be completed on my vehicle. I have spent the last couple months ignoring a warning light on my dashboard and decided it was time to investigate it. The guy behind the counter approached me a couple times with a new problem and different scenarios of how to manage them.  (It’s situations like this that remind me how much I miss my husband.) At one point the solutions proposed had a price difference of more than a thousand dollars, we went with the less expensive solution first. As they worked on that solution, I prayed fervently that it would work. Fortunately for me, God heard my prayer and answered in the affirmative. The mechanic did say there is the potential the solution is temporary; I will continue praying.
            As I left the shop in my smoothly running vehicle, it occurred to me how important maintenance is, not just in vehicles but in all aspects of life, including faith. With a car, a furnace, an appliance and the like, maintenance needs to happen on a semi-regular schedule; maybe a couple times per year. Faith maintenance on the other hand requires daily maintenance. Faith never remains neutral; it is either growing or shrinking. There are many ways to perform faith maintenance; bible reading, prayer, devotionals, practicing gratitude to God, worship, songs, meditation and others. It is an example of the creativeness of God; I don’t have that many options to maintain my appliances!
            Maybe you’re thinking, my faith doesn’t have a dashboard warning light. I beg to differ. I ignored the warning light on my truck for weeks and I think the same thing happens with our faith. The warning lights are there, we just ignore them. The warning lights are things like; missing worship, coarse language peppering our speech more frequently, getting sucked into gossip, and increased anxiety about things beyond our control (but not beyond God’s). I’m sure you can come up with more, but are you paying attention?
            God is a gentleman; he doesn’t force His way into our lives. He will send gentle reminders of His presence though. It’s up to us to pay attention. Look around you; the change of seasons, a blossoming flower, the stars in the sky, the crops in the field, the laughter of family and friends and the list is endless; they should remind us of God’s goodness and create gratefulness and the desire to worship Him. Sometimes, the call from God is a little louder; when he allows significant troubles to push us to our knees. You see, when we are on our knees we are compelled to look up. Psalm 121:1,2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”  It is also in the often-desperate times that we see the greatness of God. 2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” I know in my own circumstances I have seen God’s great love for me in what I consider the worst of times; and I have been able to find joy in knowing that regardless of my circumstances He is with me and has it all in control. I am reminded of the hymn written by Thomas Obadiah Chisholm in 1923; “All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
            So, is your ‘check faith’ light on? Spend some time on maintenance, you will be blessed.

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