The Gas Runs Out

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)  ²⁸  Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. ³⁰  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; ³¹  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

On Sunday evening a power outage began in Bar Harbor a little after 8:00 pm. I don’t mind a power outage now and then, but I have expectations that they won’t last long and whatever repairs needed can be quickly handled. When it’s raining hard and water is flowing into your basement and your sump pump can’t do its job… or if you have health equipment that depends on power… or if you just don’t want to miss the game… power loss is inconvenient and frustrating at best, and potentially dangerous and destructive at worst. If you are fortunate, and have a generator, you may be able to avoid some of the negative consequences of power loss. Your neighbors might not like you very much when you run it for six straight hours into the middle of the night, but hopefully they will be forgiving and forgetful. In my case, I was thankful to have a generator that could temporarily meet an emergency need. But what if it were long term? Sooner or later the gas would run out.

            When I was in high school a friend and I went to a movie released in 1971 called The Omega Man. It was based on a 1954 novel, I am Legend, by American author Richard Matheson, and featured Charlton Heston as the only survivor in a war waged with biological weapons. He lived in a small, barricaded apartment complex because there were a few other “survivors” left who were no longer like him. They had been transformed into almost non-human creatures who could only “come out” at night. (It was a science fiction movie J). They hated him because he was “normal”. He was a doctor who had used a developmental vaccine and saved himself, but they wanted to kill him, and would not listen to his attempts to help them with his medical knowledge. So, because they were bothered by light, he barricaded himself in this complex and used generators at night to power bright lighting in order to keep them away and stay safe. You can imagine what happens at one point in the movie: the gas runs out and creates an emergency situation that puts his life at risk. He had foolishly neglected keeping the tank filled.

            Sooner or later in life, for one reason or another, the gas runs out. The power supply is interrupted. Our personal and community energy resources – when depleted – reveal to us our weaknesses. Many years ago, when a similar situation occurred, we did not have a generator at our home. We had to bail water by hand in an attempt to keep the cellar dry. It doesn’t take much of that to realize the insufficiency of your own strength. Because we virtually have always lived with the energy we needed at our fingertips, it is easily taken for granted. But our weakness is exposed when it’s not there.

            Personal strength – physical, emotional, etc. – needs renewing in our lives. That’s why we eat and sleep. These are gifts from God. Spiritual strength is also a gift from Him. If we are to have faith… if we are to be able to endure trial and hardship… if we are to resist and overcome temptation, God will have to give us power. When we draw from our own resources, we may last a short time, but sooner or later the “gas runs out”. Without His Word and without His Spirit we will be weak constantly. Without the encouragement and help of sisters and brothers in Christ (the Church) we also will be weak. God uses these folks to give us strength.

            God’s power is real… and available to us. He is generous to give it and we are desperate to have it, for without it we will be overcome by many things which are dangerous to our soul’s well-being. We access it by asking, by immersing ourselves into the Word, by waiting on Him, by trusting Christ, by going to our fellow believers, and by repenting of our self-sufficiency and our sin.

            The Lord, and the Lord alone, is our strength and our salvation.

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NIV) ³  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Exodus 15:2 (NIV)  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV) ¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength. ²  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 28:7-8 (NIV) ⁷  The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. ⁸  The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Psalm 118:14 (NIV)  The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

PRAYER:  Father, be the strength of my life, and protect me from trusting in the adequacy of my own resources. I am weak, and I need you. It’s as simple as that. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!    

Scott