A Clean Filter
My wife hates it when the lawn mower won’t start for her and I come over. I know better than to start it on the first pull, so I pull a couple times and hear that the motor is not firing. After that, I look to make sure there is gas in the tank and then I reach down and pull off the dirty air filter and pull again. Vrrrooooooom! I pound most of the dirt off the air filter and put it back on the mower so she can finish mowing, … after she gives me that look.
What is the problem with the lawn mower? It is the same simple problem that a lot of Christians have. The motor won’t run without air, just like the Christian won’t thrive without the Holy Spirit. We tend to take air for granted while mowing lawns. We have to buy gas and sharpen the blades, but the air just comes into the engine without a thought. It is the same way as Christians. We have to go to church and read our Bibles and pray. Too often we forget about the spiritual air of what the Holy Spirit does to transform us and keep us running daily.
Brother, if you are a born-again Christian, you received a brand new air filter through which you were filled with the Holy Spirit at God’s factory the moment you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Now, look what happened. You kept out of trouble – you kept the blades sharp – and you filled up your tank with the gas of God’s word, but you have now come to the point where you are hardly able to keep going. Your ministry lags, your charity falls short, and those spiritual fruits like love, joy, and peace, they just aren’t there. No matter how much harder you to try to pull your motor over and live for Christ, it just won’t go.
So here I come as your pastor to give it a pull. I will give you some simple spiritual advice to see if we can’t get you going again. Put on a clean filter and let the Holy Spirit do His work in you!
“I say then; walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law…If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16, 22-23, 25