Full or Empty tank?

 Praise the LORD!!!

   This may sound like an unusual question to ask, but it is a pertinent one. Is your spiritual fuel tank, full or empty?  There are many times in life and especially our spiritual walk, when we've exerted ourselves beyond measure and our strength to proceed on is literally non-existent. This becomes a constant in life, if one is always reaching out to others, we become drained of that inner strength to carry on.

   Not unlike the remedy for this when our car's tanks are empty, we must stop and refuel. For the Christian this fueling is accomplished by spending time in the WORD of GOD, prayer and meditation. So very often in scripture we hear of JESUS going off to a place by HIMself to pray. Unlike us, HE didn't have a Bible to take with HIM, for scripture in those days were massive scrolls and hard to transport. But HE spent HIS time in close communion with the FATHER. In prayer and meditation, HE sometimes spent the whole night reaching out and listening to the holy FATHER.

   How often do we spend this kind of time with GOD? I'd say, it'd be a good guess to say, seldom! Most of our times in prayer are short lived, lasting but a few moments or if deeply troubled, lasting into minutes or maybe parts of an hour. Seldom, will you hear of those, that will spend an hour or more in prayer, let alone, the whole of the night or day. Now, I'm not saying we don't hear of those, that do stretch their prayer times into hours or even those that spend several hours a day, wrapped up in prayer. These though, aren't the normal and those that do practice this, are usually running major ministries. Is there a correlation between our time in prayer and the 'power' that is involved in our ministry. YES!!! JESUS spent the whole night in prayer, with the results of healing many and feeding thousands. Casting out demons, teaching masses of people or caring about the physical needs of thousands, is physically demanding, let alone spiritually. Even if you're not doing any of these, the normal draining of our spirits, that occurs from meeting life's demands, has the same effects on us. So let us go before the throne of GOD, drop to our knees or fall prostrate before it, and let our reverence, petitions and praises pour fourth. One thing to remember, also let us take time to listen and receive that which GOD has for us. For just like fueling up our cars, it doesn't do any good, if we let it run out onto the ground, it must go into our tanks(hearts)!!!.



 Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org

GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries