[219 words]
Did you ever have a car that would run well for a short spurt and then the motor would sputter?
It appears that some folks have a spurt and sputter religion.
Something will stimulate their interest and they will have a spurt of enthusiasm. For a while they will be seen at all services. They will volunteer for various duties. There is serious enthusiasm for study and even for teaching others.
But after a while their engine sputters. In a car we might diagnose the problem as “water in the gas line,” but for the sputtering Christian, the problem may be “worldliness in the spirit line.”
We admire the zealous spurt and would do nothing to discourage it, but we are always saddened when it becomes a sputter. What is needed is a Christian life that runs well for the whole trip. It’s not the short run that counts, but faithfulness in the long haul. We need to be committed to the marathon, not just a hundred yard dash!
To the Galatians, Paul wrote: “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” (Galatians 5:7).
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58).
David Pharr
via Nettleton church of Christ
Jonesboro, AR