What To Do When You Are Running On Fumes

What to do when you are running on fumes!

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - My wife as soon as her gas tank hits half a tank, she says it’s time to get gas but me on the other hand will drive my truck till I nearly run out of gas. My gas gage will say empty, but I have on my dash an indicator that says you can travel 30 miles and will count down every mile for a while and I will often try to go by that gauge. She will often say you like running on fumes and if we run out of gas, I am letting you know right now I am not walking.

Running on fumes is an idiom. An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.

The meaning of Running on Fumes is continuing to operate with no or very little enthusiasm, energy, or resources left.

Sometimes the pressures of life will make us feel as if we are running on fumes.

PRAYER:

SCRIPTURE: - 1 Samuel 16:1 says, “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons”,

It’s natural in today’s world to be caught up with what’s outside of you: your house, your job, your car, your successes, your failures and many other of life’s pressures. Just this week alone there were some things in my life that added some pressure and weighed me down a little bit. My truck was in the shop, certain desires that I desired didn’t come to fruition, and I had to catch myself because if I didn’t, I could have ended up in a negative feedback loop, this isn’t what I expected so I begin to get discouraged and because I am discouraged, I get upset because this isn’t what I expected and I get discouraged and so on.

UNDERSTAND: - The pressures of life come from 2 aspects 1 is events and the 2 is our expectation of those events. We must realize that external demands, challenges, obstacles, difficulties, decisions, deadlines and other things are just a part of our lives. As a result, these things will begin to weigh us down. There may even come times when we feel tired, alone, old sometimes even feeling despair and overwhelmed by the power of nothingness, uselessness, loneliness, and many other emotions.

It has nothing to do with salvation or how long we have been saved, there just comes a time in our lives that we find ourselves running on fumes. We will wear a mask and say things like I’m blessed and highly favored in the Lord, but down on the inside we are like David and find ourselves saying oh my soul why art thou disquieted within me.

The struggles of life are weighing us down. Now before some super spiritual person says Bishop a child of God never needs to feel this way. WATCH THIS: - While on earth, Jesus subjected Himself to the same physical emotions of tiredness we feel, He felt the sting of betrayal, loneliness, and rejection. The Bible says in John 4:6-8 “So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give Me a drink. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy meat”.

Jesus was physically tired and weary. Being tired and weary is a physical symptom that indicates the body needs rest and refreshment. When Jesus was tired, He heeded the symptom by seeking what He needed: food and water. At the same time, however, He did not allow His weariness to direct His thinking. That is where many of us fall into trouble we allow our physical condition to direct our thoughts, instead of understanding them in a way that helps us continue moving forward. Even though He was physically tired, Jesus still sought to minister with love to a hurting and broken woman.

TEXT: - 1 Samuel 16:1 says, “And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons”.

UNDERSTAND: - Samuel literally is in a state of despair. He had dedicated his life to being a prophet of God and Judge unto Israel, for years he had told them what the Lord God had commanded. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 7:15-17 says, “And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the LORD”. Then one day the elders of Israel come to him and said, Samuel you are old your sons walk contrary to God, they are nothing more than money hungry jack-legged judges. We want to be like everybody else, because your ways are old-fashioned, your methods are outdated, and we want us a king over us like everyone else. God tells Samuel 8:6 “And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them”.