Thought for the Day:
“I’m convinced that one of the major reasons we can’t handle the
demands of day-to-day living is that our spirits are weary. Our souls need to be restored…the restoration
of our souls is a ministry of our Great Shepherd…if I don’t take time to get my
spiritual tank refilled, I soon find myself ‘running on fumes.’” [Nancy Leigh DeMoss]
There are days when my tank is full and then there are days when I’m
running on empty. I’ve found that it isn’t
necessarily because one day is busy full and the other day is fairly
relaxed. There are days when I haven’t
gotten enough rest the night before that seem to drag by slowly and painfully;
but sometimes those days following limited sleep can be my most productive
ones. A cold or other illness can really
drag me down and make me weary; other days I can work just fine even when I
have to blow my nose every five minutes.
So what really makes the difference?
I have to agree with DeMoss and say that my level of spirituality makes
the most difference of anything in my life.
I’ve found that if I am prayed up and read up, then I am ready for about
anything that comes my way. I usually
read a chapter or so in the bible each day and then spend a few minutes talking
to God about it as I ponder what it had to say.
I like to view this time as a conversation with God. The bible is His words to me. My prayer is my words to Him. So when I read I strive to hear and
understand what God wants me to understand from that particular passage. My prayers always start off focused upon what
I just read. If I just learned something
about God, we’ll then I thank Him for that attribute. Hopefully if the passage speaks of sins to
forsake, I am convicted about anything I’ve done and I ask God’s
forgiveness. This contemplative reading
of the bible is the foundation of my spiritual tank remaining full.
There are other things that I do to help keep my tank topped off. If I am having trouble sleeping, I usually
listen to music. I prefer worship music
and I have a playlist of my top favorites.
These are songs that are personally meaningful to me. If my mind is too wound up or I’ve got some
ache or pain that keeps me awake, music on low usually helps me to relax and go
to sleep. If I don’t go to sleep, I
listen and praise God along with the songs and so I don’t get so worked up
about insomnia.
I also have a number of books that I sample every day. Unless I really get captivated by a thought
or a story, I usually read out of book for around five minutes. If I haven’t been struck by a profound
thought in that time, I go on to my next book.
I have novels set aside from my recreational reading at bedtime; but
these books are mainly religious or philosophical in nature. They speak about our attitude or our daily
struggle. They look at the problem of
pain and suffering. Some books I agree
wholeheartedly with and some challenge my thinking in an area. Here are the current titles that I am sipping
from: Randy Alcorn—Seeing the Unseen; Richard Carlson—Don’t Sweat the Small
Stuff; Malcom Gladwell—David and Goliath; Squire Rushnell—When God Winks at
You; John Maxwell—Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn; Dee Malchow—Alive and
Whole (Amputation Emotional Recovery); Timothy Keller—Walking with God Through
Pain and Suffering; John Maxwell—Encouragement Changes Everything; John Maxwell—How
High Will You Climb?; Warren Wiersbe—Everyday Wisdom from the Gospels; Nick
Vujicic—Life Without Limits; and Randy Alcorn—If God is Good. I’ve got another six books or so waiting for
me when I finish some of these titles. I
am constantly feeding my mind on good stuff.
My goal is to keep it full so that there is no room left over for
negative, destructive thoughts that suck the life and joy out of my life.
I have also found that I need to spend time outdoors in the woods in
the fall. Some days it is so beautiful
and refreshing to me that I know that I’ve been given just a little taste of
heaven. Bow hunting forces me to sit
quietly in the woods, listening and looking at everything around me. Usually I am productive and trying to prepare
for my next sermon or lesson or attempting to accomplish something. Sitting in the woods for a few hours each
week is so opposite of what I do most days.
And I have found this forced solitude and reflection is just what I need
to finish topping off my tank. During
this past summer, I found that an hour long bike ride all alone in the country
worked very similarly for me.
Your list of things might be very different from mine; that’s okay
because we are all unique. There are
also a number of other things that I do regularly; but these are my top
few. I would encourage you to seek to
discover what really refreshes your soul and fills your tank. Your life should be so much more than putting
in your hours at work then drop into bed to grab some sleep before you do it
all again tomorrow.
If you put some miles on your car each week, how often do you fill up
on gas? That answer varies depending
upon the number of miles you drive. Once
of week might be enough if you get great mileage and you don’t have far to
go. One thing that each of us have
learned from hard experience is that we don’t want to run out of gas and be
stuck on the side of the road waiting for help to arrive. When your gauge gets close to the big red E
it is time to stop and fill up your tank.
Check your gauge on your spiritual tank and see what it reads. Does it indicate that you need to stop and
top off your tank? It doesn’t take that
much time to stop for some spiritual gas.
You certainly don’t want to wait until you are running on fumes.
Get filled! Stay filled!
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