Many, many years ago we rented an old frame house with rollercoaster wooden floors, leaky, drafty, fifteen foot ceilings, and, unfortunately, a bad wiring system. We did not know about the faulty wiring until one by one our appliances started going out. One of the last was the television, an ancient, secondhand model. When its replacement blew the minute we turned it on, and the next, which had worked fine in the store, did the same, things began to fall into place—the electric skillet, the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, and the electric mixer all had died in the week or two before. A friend came with a voltmeter and we discovered that we were getting 145 volts in the 110 outlets and 290 in the 220s.
A call to the electric company brought an inspection. It wasn’t the old wiring after all; it was the transformer, which meant the electric company was at fault and paid for all the appliances, at depreciated value, of course, but at least we had a little help. I’ll tell you this, though—never since then have I had a mixer that could whip egg whites in ten seconds flat.
Sometimes I feel like I need a little extra voltage, don’t you? Life has its difficult moments, and it seems the older you are and the less strength your body has to deal with it, the more difficulty it must withstand. But spiritually speaking, that should not be the case. Age means experience, which means wisdom, which means things are handled better and more easily, right?
Lucas recently repeated something he had heard from someone somewhere. “Sometimes the discretion of wisdom is just the result of being too tired to act.” I identified with the thought immediately. I wonder how many times I have been complimented for my restraint in handling things when the momentary lag of weariness just gave me enough time to think first, or maybe when it just plain overwhelmed me enough to keep me still and out of trouble.
I feel sometimes like I need a spark, that extra voltage that made a stiff meringue faster than I ever had before. We all tend to become complacent, to take for granted the spiritual blessings we have, even salvation. It usually shows in our anemic zeal and ho-hum worship.
And we get tired of the fight. Yet again someone has belittled the Word of God, or taken His name in vain, or simply treated sin as normal and anyone who thinks otherwise as a bigoted fanatic. After fighting for God for so many years, feeling like we are making no headway at all in a world dominated by sin, we just sit back and let it happen. What good will it do anyway?
You never know. More than once I have spoken out alone, only to suddenly find several others standing next to me—people who were too fearful to speak until they heard someone else. I have found out, many days after the fact, that when I stood for the truth, or acted like a Christian is supposed to act in the face of mistreatment, that it helped someone else do the same later on. And many, many more times, I have been the fearful one who was helped simply by seeing a warrior for righteousness take on Satan and his minions single-handedly.
So take some spiritual vitamins today. Pray, read the scripture, meditate in your break time, call a brother or sister and revel in their love—that’s why they are there, that’s why God gave us each other. Put a jolt of extra voltage in your spiritual life and don’t give in to weariness. You do make a difference for the Lord.
You are righteous, O Jehovah, and upright are your judgments. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and very faithfulness. My zeal has consumed me because my adversaries have forgotten your word. Your word is very pure, therefore shall your servant love it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and your law is truth. Psa. 119:137-142.
Dene Ward
A call to the electric company brought an inspection. It wasn’t the old wiring after all; it was the transformer, which meant the electric company was at fault and paid for all the appliances, at depreciated value, of course, but at least we had a little help. I’ll tell you this, though—never since then have I had a mixer that could whip egg whites in ten seconds flat.
Sometimes I feel like I need a little extra voltage, don’t you? Life has its difficult moments, and it seems the older you are and the less strength your body has to deal with it, the more difficulty it must withstand. But spiritually speaking, that should not be the case. Age means experience, which means wisdom, which means things are handled better and more easily, right?
Lucas recently repeated something he had heard from someone somewhere. “Sometimes the discretion of wisdom is just the result of being too tired to act.” I identified with the thought immediately. I wonder how many times I have been complimented for my restraint in handling things when the momentary lag of weariness just gave me enough time to think first, or maybe when it just plain overwhelmed me enough to keep me still and out of trouble.
I feel sometimes like I need a spark, that extra voltage that made a stiff meringue faster than I ever had before. We all tend to become complacent, to take for granted the spiritual blessings we have, even salvation. It usually shows in our anemic zeal and ho-hum worship.
And we get tired of the fight. Yet again someone has belittled the Word of God, or taken His name in vain, or simply treated sin as normal and anyone who thinks otherwise as a bigoted fanatic. After fighting for God for so many years, feeling like we are making no headway at all in a world dominated by sin, we just sit back and let it happen. What good will it do anyway?
You never know. More than once I have spoken out alone, only to suddenly find several others standing next to me—people who were too fearful to speak until they heard someone else. I have found out, many days after the fact, that when I stood for the truth, or acted like a Christian is supposed to act in the face of mistreatment, that it helped someone else do the same later on. And many, many more times, I have been the fearful one who was helped simply by seeing a warrior for righteousness take on Satan and his minions single-handedly.
So take some spiritual vitamins today. Pray, read the scripture, meditate in your break time, call a brother or sister and revel in their love—that’s why they are there, that’s why God gave us each other. Put a jolt of extra voltage in your spiritual life and don’t give in to weariness. You do make a difference for the Lord.
You are righteous, O Jehovah, and upright are your judgments. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and very faithfulness. My zeal has consumed me because my adversaries have forgotten your word. Your word is very pure, therefore shall your servant love it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and your law is truth. Psa. 119:137-142.
Dene Ward
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