It’s been a while since I’ve run out of gas in my
car. Back when I first started driving,
the possibility of running out of gas seemed to be a much more likely
occurrence. Today, with the reminders
from the electronics in front of the driver, the distance to empty that is ever
present on the dashboard and my wife’s verbal reminders, I rarely drive my car
on empty.
When it comes to my spiritual life however, it seems like
just the opposite. When I first became a
believer, it seemed like my spiritual life was constantly being recharged. Prayer, Bible study, fellowship with other
Christians, and two church services on Sunday and one at midweek were
constantly keeping my ‘tank’ full. I
have to admit that now, almost forty years later, it’s easier to find that I’m
running too close to empty.
While the reasons may be many, prayer is one of the ways
we keep our relationship with our heavenly Father and our spiritual life full.
The famous 19th century Baptist preacher from England, Charles Spurgeon said,
“I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the
measure of the intensity of your prayer.”
Prayer is likely the most significant key to our
spiritual life. We can easily find
ourselves going through the motions, being somewhat moral in our outward
behavior and Christian in conduct while being deficient and lacking in prayer.
The remedy however for an impaired spiritual life is as
close as a silent prayer. I have found
that the simple, heartfelt prayers are the ones that can quickly restore my
relationship with God my Father. My
habit has been to be thankful for any of the many blessings that God has
provided and to enter into a time of thanksgiving and praise before I remember
the petitions that can quickly come to mind.
Prayer is our primary means of communication with
God. Prayer is also worship as we humble
ourselves to our God and Father. In
prayer, we acknowledge that God is present, that he is able to hear our prayer
and uniquely know our hearts intention.
As he is Almighty God, He alone is the necessary requirement for a full
spiritual life.
God desires to fill us with His presence. That concept of being ‘filled’ or what Paul
describes as the ‘fullness of God’ is found in Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height; to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
We don’t need to ever be empty again.
