Many years ago while driving down a Texas freeway, I looked down and noticed that my fuel was running low. Spotting a service station up ahead, I pulled in and filled my tank. Five miles further down the freeway, my little Volkswagen sputtered, died, and coasted to the side of the road. Unable to get it running again, I called for help and left the car. A relative towed the car to his house and fixed it. It was a simple fix, one that even I could do. The problem was that the last batch of gasoline had been contaminated with water.
Sometimes in my life I too am doing fine when suddenly I sputter and stop. When I do, I try to remember the lessons learned from that night:
I learned that if I put bad fuel into my tank (my heart), it will not worked it should. Before that night I would have guessed a glass of water in 10 gallons of gasoline might cause sputtering, but not a total failure of the engine. I was wrong. David said, “Your Word have I put in my heart that I might not sin”” (Psalm 119:11). The right fuel for the Christian heart is the word of God. The wrong fuel is any thing that will contaminate it.
I learned that a thing does not have to be all bad to cause failure. I did not put all water into the tank. I put mostly gasoline with a little water. People talk about how much good someone does and somehow think that will make up for the evil behavior, but a little bad destroys a lot of good. Solomon wrote, “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor” (Ecc 10:1). It does not take much poison in a glass to make the whole drink poison.
I learned that just because I thought I was doing right, did not mean it was the right thing to do. I thought I was putting pure gasoline in, but I was not. Good intentions do not overcome the bad actions (or dumb behavior). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).
I learned that you will not have a good result until you remove the bad and put the good in its place. Once the pure gasoline replaced the contaminated fuel, everything started working as it should.
Lonnie Davis
HeartWord – Proverbs 4:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”