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40 – Spiritual Fuel to Build Strength and Endurance

Are you using the right kinds of “spiritual fuel” to energize and strengthen your faith? Or are you consuming what seems like fuel, but is actually a corrosive that eats away at your spirit and endurance? Come join us as we discuss how to identify false spiritual fuel from the real deal—and where you can find true satisfaction for your soul.

SHOW NOTES

We often talk about writing as a journey, but we don’t spend enough time focusing on the proper type of fuel we need for that journey. Everything we do in life requires energy, so we’re in a constant need for fuel. It’s never ending, until we die. But it’s not just physical fuel. We need the right kind if spiritual fuel to endure the things we encounter on a spiritual front. The problem is, there are good fuels out there, and harmful fuels. And we’re not always as discriminating as we need to be.

You can’t put regular gas into a diesel vehicle—it kills the engine. If you put diesel into a vehicle that runs on gas, same thing. Physically speaking, we have to feed our bodies the right kind of fuel for it to work as it was designed.

This applies to spiritual fuel as well. We have to use the right kind of spiritual fuel so that our hearts and spirits will “operate” as God intended, as He created them to operate, in faith and peace.

Problem is, too often we THINK we’re feeding on fuel, when in reality we’re feeding on things that corrode and destroy. Just as diesel will kill a gas-powered engine, putting gas in a diesel engine could actually cause it to explode, so feeding on false fuels—things that we think energize us spiritually, but in reality are corroding and destroying—can undermine our spiritual strength and endurance.

 

False fuels

• Fear
• Anger
• Bitterness
• Discouragement
• Worry
• Negativity

Whether we realize it or not, it’s easy to get caught up in these things. To feed on them. But it’s so hard to know when we’re doing this!

 

How can we recognize when we’re using the wrong fuel?

Ask ourselves:

• What kinds of things are we saying? Is our talk centered on concerns? On wrongs done to us?

• What do we feel? Angry, discouraged, frustrated?

• What do we often hear? Sometimes we’re like a person at a buffet who only takes one food out of dozens, we may only hear the one negative comment out of ten positive things.

• Where are our thoughts focused? What do we find ourselves thinking about? We can get deep grooves or patterns in our brains, and no matter what we start thinking about, we end up on the same thing.

• What do those we trust say about us?

 

False Fuels have these things in common

• They’re useless; they won’t create spark.

• Or, more dangerous, they make us feel energized. But it’s the wrong kind of energy. It’s an energy that destroys and consumes us.

• They suck us in like a vortex we can’t escape from. We cycle around and around.

• They burden us rather than uplift us.

• They turn our focus inward rather than toward God and others. Whenever we turn our focus inward, we’re focusing on the flesh, not on the spirit, therefore we don’t nurture or produce the fruit of the spirit.

 

What Spiritual Fuel Should We Feed On?

Jesus tells us what His food is in John 4:34.  “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work…”

• This is about focus. About doing whatever it is that God has given us to do. This is where we get our energy from.

• Focus on Jesus as being the source of our refreshment. “Those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25

• When we focus on what God has given us to do, we’re focused on Him and on His perspective, and not on ourselves.

 

Jesus also tells us in John 6:35 that we need to feed on Him. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty…”

• This is spiritual food that will sustain us, nurture our spirit, and grow the fruit of the spirit within us. We need to trust He will satisfy us. “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” Psalm 90:14

• John 6:56-57  ^“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”

• Jesus is the Passover lamb. We need to feed on the whole of Him—His cross, His yoke, His suffering, His resurrection. 1 Corinthians 5:7 “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”

 

Psalm 63:4-5 give us another form of spiritual food: Praising God. “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”

• This comes down to, again, recognizing who God is and focusing on Him.

 

We want to hear from you!

Have you ever found yourself feeding on a false fuel?

In what ways have you learned to feed on Jesus?

 

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Don’t let false fuels corrode your faith!