Running on Empty...

August 19, 2009

Danielle Joyner Kelley

“There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” Proverbs 23:18.

Often when we grow older we put the innocence and faith we had as a child behind us in the past. We do everything we can to appear mature but when emotions kick in we fall back into childish ways of handling things. Simply put, we give up the good that comes from being a child and carry only the bad behaviors from our childhood into our adult future.

God wanted us to have faith like children and believe with the same faith we had when we believed in tooth fairies and Easter bunnies. “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15.

He never wanted us to carry forward the behaviors we displayed as children when the world made us angry. “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” 1 Corinthians 13:11.

When we act outwardly each actions guilt or innocence depends on whether we are acting out of faith or emotion. As humans, we usually drive our own car by whatever is in our fuel tank. If we are running off of emotion then we drive on emotion. If we are running off of faith then we drive on faith.

Only when we are driving on faith do we have true hope. Hope is an emotion that applies to the present or future. Only hope can move us forward. “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” Romans 8:24. Driving off of emotion is usually done by applying something that happened in the past to a current situation in the present.

The purpose of driving is to change locations. Driving backwards into the past, or remaining idle while focusing on the future does no good. Taking that route cannot bring about change.

The reality is that if you are going to spend your energy and fuel running through life, you should not spend it all on fuel that does not give you change. Emotions come and emotions go, but rest assured…

Faith never leaves you empty.