Fuel up

Deli went to visit her uncle and his family at Chigs during the long vacation. She went on a Saturday and arrived late in the night though she set off for the journey very early in the morning.She was awakened by the spanks she received by her uncle’s wife who called her lazy for failing to wake up early enough to prepare for church. Still exhausted from the previous day’s journey, she walked hazily to the bathroom, quickly came out and dressed up for church and joined the rest of the family at the living room downstairs. Uncle Dema went to the garage to bring out the car for them to join and travel to church.

Looking at how late he was, he just turned the engine on started reversing out of the garage without checking if the car was in good order for it to move on the road. The others joined in the car and they set off.After church, the car refused to ignite and move despite several attempts tried by Uncle Dema and other drivers. His car had also blocked the only road of the church; no one could go in and go out either. A member of the church asked if he had enough fuel in the car. He quickly responded in the affirmative because of his ego and believing in himself too much that he can’t be disgraced because he had no fuel in his tank as a famous political leader and a professor.

After being asked severally, he went to check his fuel gauge and oh, he had no fuel. He failed to check his car in the morning if he had enough fuel and check if the car was in good order. What a big disgrace! He had to trek to town to get a gallon of fuel before everyone could move.But it is so sad that is how most Christians behave nowadays.Our walk with Christ can be compared to that of a car.

1. A car needs fuel and to be in good order in order to move and also, to avoid the risks of accidents. A Christian needs prayer and the Word of God in order to be rooted and built up in Christ and prevent falling as prey for the devil. Our fuel as Christians is the word of God and prayer.

Acts 20:32

” And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

Acts 6:4 is one of our mandates we should live by.

Acts 6:4

” But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

2. A car cannot move when it has no fuel. In the same way, a Christian cannot be on fire when he or she refuses to pray and read the word of God. His or her life comes to a standstill.
_ Just as physically we have two legs in order to move and stand physically, we also have two legs in order to move and stand in our Christian journey. One leg is prayer and the other leg, the Word of God. Physically, just as we can’t stand and move with only one leg, we can’t also depend one leg i.e. either prayer or reading the Word of God for our Christian race. Both legs are needed to run the Christian race. We have a race to run as Christians.

Hebrews 12:1

“…and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,..”

I’m wondering who can run with one leg without any support physically so it is for our Christian lives too. Prayer and the word of God should be your fuel in order to grow in the Lord. We can’t do with prayer and leave the word of God and vice versa.

3. Let’s look at the maintenance of a car. Every morning, every responsible driver checks to make sure the car is in good order; enough petrol, oil not leaking, pouring water inside the engine every morning to serve as a coolant, before setting off the road. In the same way, before you set off for the day, read the word of God and pray daily.As you commune with Him daily, you get to know what He plans for you each day and leave according to it. A person who does not communicate with God has no direction.

Imagine a car moving anyhow on the road without direction. The car will be damaging its body and that of other objects around or even cars around if it is on the road.Your failure to commune with God does not only affect you but those around and connected to you also get affected.Be a responsible Christian, your failure to pray and read the Word of God does not only affect you. Those God has kept under you are going to stray away because of your irresponsibility.Every Christian has a ministry and as you commune with God, He tells you what your ministry is, and gives you grace to do His work in His vineyard so as to draw people to the saving grace of Christ and depopulate hell.Make it a habit to commune with Christ on a daily basis. It is always for our own good and benefit. God knows what is always best for us. He sees beyond what our eyes can see and knows beyond what our minds can think about.

Jeremiah 29:11

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”.

4. As a car’s fuel reduces, the fuel gauge goes down. As a Christian’s prayer life and his or her relationship with God reduces, the Holy Spirit gives us several signals for us to fuel up again and that’s our gauge. When you feel you should pray, don’t be postponing, and read your bible daily.

Now let’s look at what happens when a car has no fuel; when a Christian fails to read the word of God and to pray.

• It cannot be moved from the garage or where it has been packed. In the same way a Christian’s life becomes static when he or she fails to read the word of God and pray because we grow spiritually through reading the word of God and praying, especially in the Holy Ghost.

• If it is in a traffic or on a one way road, the cars behind cannot move; school children cannot go to school., people going to work cannot go, somebody going for a new job appointment may lose it for being late, somebody going for an interview for something important may lose it, a pregnant woman in labor in a vehicle behind may lose the child and can even bleed to death, the list goes on and on. The fuel of a Christian is prayer and the word of God. When you fail to pray and read the word of God, it affects other people. If you fail to pray as an intercessor, you put a lot of lives at risk. If you fail to read the word of God, you can’t evangelize, and then you will rather be populating Hell instead of being a depopulator of Hell.

• If the fuel of the car gets finished at a distant place where the road is hardly plied by both cars and pedestrians, you will now trek miles on foot to get to a town that has a fuel station.

• If it is the car that has broken down because you didn’t do a check up on the car before moving it on the road, you will now have to travel miles on foot to look for a mechanic to work on your car and even with that, how sure are you that you will get one to follow you? If you are the one that has a personal mechanic and there is no network in that area, you can’t even call him.If you decide to stop a car that may ply that road, the road is a place people hardly use so will you stand there for days waiting for a car to pass by ? And how sure are you that you will even get a car going in your direction or the people from the car passing by are not robbers or people that might harm you? Always be fueled up through prayer and the Word of God.

Dear friends, let us fuel up. We should always have enough fuel in us, praying and reading the scriptures consistently to be rooted and built up in Christ so we can also help others to do same. Don’t forget we walk on two legs; prayer and the word of God. You can’t choose to pray and never read the word of God and vice versa. The two are sides of the same coin. You can’t stand on one leg, you can’t walk on one leg, you can’t run on one leg. Be fueled up! Never be like the five foolish virgins who could not meet the bridegroom because they lacked fuel. Fuel the fire of God in you.

Proverbs 26:20a

” Where there is no fuel a fire goes out”

God bless you for reading.Photo Credit : Internet