Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Well, hey, friends, welcome to the weekday podcast. My name is Bobby. I'm so glad you're with us this week. If you missed yesterday, I would encourage you to consider going back one episode and catching up a little bit, because all week long, we're talking about this idea that religion and the way I'm using it is this idea that we can earn our way into good graces with God. That might be actually the thing that's keeping us from God. And today I want to think about this idea of what do you do when willpower runs out? Romans 8:6 says, for the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is both life and peace. And I don't know if you've ever done this, if you've ever been driving and suddenly realized your low fuel light is on and it's probably been on for a while, but you had no idea. That happened to me. Not long ago. I'd been traveling. I got home late, my brain was mushed. I had one goal. Get home, see Laura, harass our puppy, get some sleep. But the next morning, I jumped in the car and started running errands without even glancing at the gas gauge. And somewhere along the way, the whole dashboard lit up. Low fuel, low fuel. Warning. Warning. Warning. So you know what I did? I started being very gentle with the accelerator. Like, if I drove nice and easy, maybe the car would give me just a few more miles. Well, actually, it worked. I barely made it. But here's the thing I keep coming back to. The problem wasn't how I was driving. The car was doing everything right. The. The problem was I was running on empty, but I didn't even know it. That's exactly what Paul's describing in Romans 8:6. The mindset on the flesh. The mind set on self, effort and willpower and personal discipline. It hits a dead end. Not because effort is bad, but because willpower was never designed to be the primary fuel source for your spiritual life.
[00:01:45] Maybe January was great. Maybe you made God some big promises and you met every one of them. You had momentum. But here's the thing about self motivation. It has an expiration date. And when it runs out, religion just tells you what to do. Try harder, recommit, rededicate, start over. So you do it because you mean it. But if you walk away with a new commitment and the same power source, which is just you, you're eventually going to end up right back where you started. And this time, with the added weight of wondering why it never seems to stick. I'VE watched people buy every devotional download every Bible app, sign up for every small group genuinely trying, and still feel like they're spirit running on fumes. That's not a discipline problem. That's a fuel problem. So here's what I want you to hear today. The life Jesus offers isn't a new commitment to try harder. It's a completely different power source. One that doesn't run dry when life gets hard. One that doesn't depend on how motivated you feel on a Tuesday morning. And maybe today. Maybe today is the day that you stop trying to pedal harder and you actually get plugged in because willpower runs out. But I'm telling you, the spirit of Jesus living in you, it does not. So give this a try today and lean on him. Have a great day. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
