If you’ve ever run out of gas you know how hard it is to push a car uphill. It’s backbreaking work. In fact, during the World’s Strongest Man competitions often there is an event where men will push or pull a semi tractor-trailer. It’s exhausting even for the world’s strongest men. So why would any man push his car uphill to a gas station if the car already has gas in the tank? No one would be so foolish as to push a car when he could just get in and drive it. Yet that is what most men are doing every day of their lives.
God created men to be leaders; because he made them the head of the family God created me to be leaders in their homes. Sometimes it gets tough to lead. Financial pressure, sickness, job stress, parenting, etc. can all take a toll on a leader. That kind of pressure is like pushing a car uphill. When several of these things hit a family all at once most men will buckle under that kind of pressure. But God has given men the power to handle the pressures of life- no matter how difficult they become.
Are you running on empty?
Jesus is the gas that makes the car go. He is the power that enables a man to handle the pressures of life. He is the one that gives the ability to deal with difficulties. It blows my mind when men try to handle the difficulties of life without Jesus.
You were not created to handle all the difficulties of life on your own. God created man to lead but he also created man to lean on him while they lead. Typically, what happens is that men try to control the circumstances of their life so that they don’t need God anymore. Andre Gide, The French Nobel prize-winning author, once said, “Man’s responsibility increases as God’s responsibility decreases.” Which means that when Jesus is the center of your world the pressures of life become smaller- when Jesus is not the center of your world the pressures of life become larger.
Are you pushing the car on a hill when there’s already gasoline in the tank? Are you trying to handle all of the pressures and the circumstances of life instead of allowing Jesus to deal with that for you? Are you trying to be a man that has everything under control or are you trying to be a man who has given control of everything over to Jesus?
