by John Grant
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
Colossians 3:2
It is one of the greatest environmental disasters of all time and the total damage may not be known for years. It started with an oil drilling platform that had sunk a well nearly a mile below the surface. To protect from disaster, it was equipped with a blowout preventer, but something went terribly wrong when a backfire exploded on the platform instantly killing eleven people in a huge and explosive fire that ultimately took the platform to the bottom of the sea.
Subsequent investigations determined that among other things, the “fail-safe” device had a dead battery. As I read the press clips, I was amazed that for want of a charged battery, a billion dollar rig could have been saved, the lives taken spared and the environment saved. All of this happened because of a dead battery.
I could not help but think of a spiritual parallel. How many Christians get a spiritual “buzz” and get involved in everything Christian in their church and community and after a while it wears off and becomes less exciting and downright boring? It is so easy to get to burdened down with doing Christian things that we lose our glow and the spirit within us becomes weak.
Boredom kills intimacy. In my pursuit of God I have found that with a structured and disciplined Christian life comes the potential for routine and boredom. As my daily spiritual disciplines become mere routine, before long, they can degenerate into empty ritual, and empty ritual into boredom.
What can you and I do to keep our relationship with God fresh, vital, and charged up? Doing things for God may be good for the kingdom, but when we get overloaded, we get into a spiritual rut.
To keep our spiritual batteries fully charged, we need to pull away and spend sufficient alone time with God. We do that in our daily quiet time, by reading and studying God’s Word and by praying, not so much with our petitions to God, but in our listening to Him. We should pray continually, share daily and become aware of God’s work within us and around us. We tend to become what we think about all day long. Are we thinking of things above or are we thinking of things of this earth. Are we living under the arm of flesh or the arm of faith.
Remember to keep your spiritual batteries fully charged and no matter what comes your way, your spiritual fail safe mechanism will be with you in all the ways of life.
(a thought on life from John Grant )
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney.
You can comment on this devotional online at:
https://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/06/04/jg_spiritual-battery/
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