That\u2019s what we said \u2013 long before we had do-it-yourself gas stations. Once upon a time, there were full-service gas stations. That meant the attendant would wash our front windows, air up our tires and fill the car up with gas. Long gone are those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And, spiritually, when it comes to getting full service and a full tank, let\u2019s say \u201cFill me up, Lord!\u201d Here I go again with old songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fill my cup Lord. I lift it up Lord.
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup. I lift it up. And make me whole!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Singing that song or praying that prayer means we are speaking to our heavenly \u201cAttendant\u201d. He does His part in filling us up with His goodness and mercy, but these days, we have a role to play. This is do-it-yourself 101!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be filled up spiritually, our part is to spend time praying, reading, and meditating on God\u2019s Word, and then living with great expectation that something good is about to happen \u2013 direct from our Heavenly Attendant aka the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We should never think that those life-giving activities are an obligatory chore. They are rather a nourishing, refreshing privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of my young life, I heard that I \u201cought\u201d to have quiet time every day with God and it was about the same time that I was being harped on about eating the vegetables I didn\u2019t want to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spending time with God isn\u2019t an \u201cought to\u201d. It should be a \u201cmust do” for wisdom, strength, peace, comfort, joy, etc. We can be tired, weary, and emotionally spent, but after spending time alone with God, we find ourselves with energy, power, and strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is — taking time to be alone and still with God isn\u2019t a gift to Him. It\u2019s a gift to us \u2013 a very necessary gift. God\u2019s Word makes it clear that we\u2019re in a daily battle, against a very real enemy. There is a reason that the Apostle Paul follows an encouragement to \u201cbe strong in the Lord.” In other words, keeping our spiritual tank full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gives us a warning about the spiritual conflict we encounter each day: \u201c….be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Awesome words that encourage us to suit up in our armor, but no matter if our armor is made of steel, we are still vulnerable to attack if our spiritual tank is always empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we all be full-tank, full of faith, armor bearers. Just as Paul prayed for the Ephesus believers, I am praying for us to be strong spiritually and \u201cthat He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.\u201d (Ephesians 3:16)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, I\u2019m saying, \u201cLet\u2019s keep our spiritual tanks full to overflowing. Fill er\u2019 up, Lord!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That\u2019s what we said \u2013 long before we had do-it-yourself gas stations. Once upon a time, there were full-service gas stations. That meant the attendant would wash our front windows, air up our tires and fill the car up with gas. Long gone are those days. And, spiritually, when it comes to getting full service…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28500],"tags":[28496,4383,20147,28492,1210,1769,2901,28498,28494,1392,28499,28488,28491,28495,28497,28489,40,28493],"class_list":["post-19043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fill-my-cup","tag-armor-bearers","tag-armor-of-god","tag-attendant","tag-be-strong-in-the-lord","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-do-it-yourself","tag-ephesians-316","tag-ephesians-610-12","tag-facebook","tag-fill-er-up","tag-fill-me-up","tag-fill-my-cup-lord","tag-full-of-faith","tag-full-tank","tag-gas-station","tag-inspiration","tag-spiritual-conflict"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19052,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19043\/revisions\/19052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}