A spiritual warning signal …

My old car is 15 years old and loaded with miles. Too many miles!

For the past few months, the check engine light continues to come on. It eventually goes off, but it comes on again.

Something is wrong with my engine. Although the car continues to operate (for the moment), something is wrong with it; it needs to be fixed.

Just like that amber light on my car’s dashboard, Christians have a warning light that signals something is wrong.

What is it?

It’s an “up-and-down” faith. When we’re happy with God when things are good, and find our lives rocked when things are the least bit challenging, that’s a sign that something is wrong with us spiritually.

Something needs to be fixed.

Authentic discipleship is not dependent on our evaluation of God’s daily performance. Yet, you couldn’t tell that by the lives of many who call themselves Christian. A simplistic example: just last month, some were wringing their hands and proclaiming “Woe is me!” simply because the entire family couldn’t be together on Christmas day. Certainly it would be nice to have family together at such a time, but is this something to wail about and act as if great tragedy has struck?

It doesn’t seem to take much to move some from a profession of faith, to them feeling victimized by the world … and even by God.

NASA has an old saying that describes what was vital among the character of the men and women they trained as astronauts: Maintain an even strain.

Things don’t always go right in space, and because of that, those selected to be astronauts had to be able to think clearly when something went awry.

Well, things certainly don’t always go right in life, and as disciples of Jesus Christ, we need to be able to think clearly in less-than-perfect situations. Job demonstrated this kind of character for us when he said of his horrendous plight:

“Though he slay me, I will hope in Him …” Job 13:15a (NASB).

Even an authentic faith will have it’s trials, but those trials don’t derail its consistency.

If you’re finding your faith to be inconsistent, then take that as a warning light that something in your relationship with God needs to be fixed. By the way, I know an awesome spiritual mechanic by the name of the Holy Spirit. He works for free, and He can fix anything in your life that needs fixing.

Scotty