Last Saturday included a variety of activities that I hoped to accomplish. Among them was changing the oil in my car. It is a do-it-yourself task that I have performed for forty years, so the process is not one unfamiliar to me. I do not particularly enjoy the job—it gets messy at times–, and I doubt that it saves me a pile of money, but it is quicker to do it myself rather than taking it to a shop.

As I have done many times, I crawled under my old Buick and went to work: removing the drain plug while being careful to catch the used oil, removing the old filter, then putting the plug back in and installing the new filter. Simple enough, even for someone who has as many thumbs as I have. The next step, obviously, is to fill the crankcase with fresh oil, then after checking for leaks it is all done.

It was all normal routine until I went out to the shed to get the new oil. There I found two green jugs just as I expected, but when I reached down to pick up one there was no resistance; it was nearly empty. Then I grabbed the other one with the same results.

What do you do when your car is parked with all the oil drained out and you do not have new oil to fill it up?

Thankfully I was able to get to town on another vehicle before everything closed to purchase what I needed. At the end of the day everything turned out fine, although my failure to check my supplies in advance and replace what I had depleted came with a price in both time and dollars. Nevertheless, it served as another lesson on life: always check your supplies and replenish them before the need arises.

Perhaps many of our spiritual shortcomings are the result of us trying to face life by our own means rather than fully trusting God and allowing Him to equip us with the spiritual supplies that we need to successfully navigate through the demanding avenues of life.

In the New Testament, Luke 9 gives the account of Christ sending out His twelve closest devotees to share His message. As He sent them, verse one tells us that He gave them power and authority to do what He had directed them to do.

Even though our spiritual tasks might be different from theirs in some aspects, the message and the mission remain the same: sharing the good news of God’s love and forgiveness.

It is essential that we remain in a close and personal relationship with Him so that we are well supplied with His power to achieve what He has commissioned us to do. To get in the middle of some mission or work for God only to realize that we have not invited Him to replenish our spiritual strength will yield unfavorable results every time. I like what Chuck Swindoll had to say about looking to God to provide needed spiritual strength: “Prayer provides unlimited access to the power God longs to give to those who serve Him.”

Luke 9:6 is a living example of operating while well supplied with God-given power: “So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere” (New International Version).

Check your spiritual supplies before you face each day. Don’t try to do God’s work on your own; rely on Him to supply what you need to accomplish what He sends you to do.