September 6, 2012 (Thursday)
My car started making a whining noise so I asked my favorite mechanic to listen to it. He did and said there was a part that was wearing out. After asking him more about it, we agreed it needed to be fixed, because, even though it was still running OK, the part could fail in the future. Rather than risk being stranded on the highway, I had it repaired. It’s been fixed now, so I won’t worry about it anymore.
It seems to me that our spiritual lives can be compared to the problem with my car. We become aware that there’s something not quite right in our hearts and minds, and our fellowship with God seems to be affected by it. It’s not a disaster at the present time, but,if left unattended, the problem in our spiritual life may eventually grow into a greater one. It’s a pretty good idea to tend to the situation when it is first discovered — not when it gets worse.
When we become aware that there is something amiss in our hearts, we need to ask an expert who knows what it’s all about: God. He may want us to add something, remove something, or repair something in our lives that has begun to hurt like a pebble in the shoe. Doubtless, his diagnosis may require taking some actions that will help, like studying the Bible daily, praying from the heart every day, sharing our testimony that we love the Lord with someone — anyone, and making sure that we’re maintaining fellowship with other Christians and participating regularly in worship. Doubtless these activities will create a desire in our hearts to do more for the Lord and begin some type of ministry of our own, however simple it may be, in which we learn the meaning of that scripture verse which says, “Be doers of the Word, not hearers only..” (James 1:22 KJV). This will enable us to be more like Jesus, and we will be able to allow an old chorus to become the theme of our newly discovered joy: “To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus, all I ask, to be like Him. All through life’s journey, from earth to heaven, all I ask: to be like Him.”