Motor On !

Don’t be fooled by the outside !   Last week in visiting with my folks Dad wanted me to look at a potential acquisition. He had seen a car and liked how it looked and wanted me to come back with him and check it out.   As we looked at this nearly twenty year old car, I couldn’t see any marks on the exterior, it was an expensive car when it was first built, and looked to have been kept in good condition, and the asking price seemed reasonable.  So I asked the owners if we could start it up.  That is when it was obvious something was not quite right, it rattled chronically once it started !  Needless to say it was “no deal” as it was crystal clear it needed some engine work, the inside was not quite right !

For many of us who are saved that is sometimes the case with us.  We learn how to appear spiritual, to say the right things at the right time.  We go through the motions in our church, we may tithe, serve, etc. But inside things need a “tune up”, if you will.   Jesus put His pulse on the knocking in the Pharisees’  “engines” when He stated they were as “whited sepulchres”.  They had really let things go spiritually, yet they were sure to keep up appearances and provide a semblance of respectability (or so they thought).  But He knew their inner thoughts and He does ours too. We may not be in as rough a shape as those hypocrites of Jesus’s day but at times we can let slide the working of the Spirit upon ours to renew us daily. We do well to heed Paul’s words (a great prayer actually) to the Ephesians when he wrote, “. . . that He would grant to you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might BY HIS SPIRIT IN THE INNER MAN. . . that ye might be FILLED WITH ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD. [Eph.3:16-19].

Sometimes we allow bitterness to go unchecked by refusing to forgive someone, or we get into a pattern of negativity in our attitudes due to underexposure to the Word, or we get weary of doing so much for Christ and seeing others not and we become as Martha carping on the Marys around us rather choosing that one thing which is needful for us,  fellowship with and worship of  Christ. Fellowship can be lost so easily, fortunately its only a “tuneup” away too !   So today’s a new day, make sure your “engine is purring” spiritually !!