A Man Can Run Hard for Ten Years on the Wrong Fuel

I put diesel in a gas truck once. Thankfully there was a mechanic shop about a quarter mile up the road, and they drained it and bled all the lines to get it running right again. That was a fixable mistake because I found out right away.

A man doesn’t get that warning when the wrong fuel is in his own tank. I ran on hard rock music for years, and I felt fine the whole time. Nobody warned me, and I never thought to check.

I’m not the only one.

Some run on pop rock, country rock, or the so-called Christian kind, and they call the stir in their chest the Spirit.

Some run on self-help and performance books, one guru after another, each promising a better version of himself.

Some run on the boss’s approval, or on being proven right, or on the next fire to put out.

A good many just want their own way and call it vision.

All of them are moving. All of them think their reason is a good one. “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits” (Proverbs 16:2). We hardly ever weigh our own motives.

Colossians has a word for the books: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8). A book can be full of good habits and still run on self from cover to cover.

It’s the same inside the church. The deacon and the Sunday school teacher can both show up every week, and not for the same reason. One is there for the Lord. One is there to be seen. From the pew it all looks alike.

Fuel changes, too. A man can pour ten years into one goal, reach it, and find nothing left to burn. Whatever you’re running on had better outlast the goal.

Paul named his: “For the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). The next time somebody asks how you’re doing, and you say fine, take a minute with the question. Ask the Lord to show you what’s in the tank, and don’t be surprised if it takes more than one sitting.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/