When I was a kid, I saw something I’ll never forget. Three men were looking under the hood of a car when suddenly the battery exploded, and battery acid splattered over one man’s face. Fortunately, a water faucet was nearby, and they quickly washed his face with water. I don’t know if his injuries were serious, but it looked frightening. Since then I’ve learned that these kinds of accidents, though not common, can and do happen. If the level of sulfuric acid is too low, a dangerous level of hydrogen gas can build up and result in an explosion. Car batteries can also explode when trying to recharge or jumpstart a car battery and a spark ignites the hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture.
You can prevent these explosions by keeping the battery clean and maintained. If you have an older kind of battery that has caps over the battery’s cells, you need to keep the cells filled with water. If you keep the battery filled, it’s less likely a dangerous level of hydrogen gas will build up. If you keep the battery clean, hydrogen gas can escape through the vents and prevent dangerous buildups.
Just as you need to keep your car battery maintained to prevent an explosion, so too, you need to keep your spiritual batteries maintained to prevent emotional explosions. Emotional explosions can occur if your spiritual vitality is too low. In a spiritual vacuum, dangerous levels of negativity can build up and cause an emotional explosion. You need to keep your heart filled with positive emotions like love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, and forgiveness. When your heart is filled with these positive emotions, then there isn’t room for dangerous, negative emotions like hate, worry, depression, harshness, cruelty, and intolerance.
You can prevent dangerous emotional explosions by following God’s instructions. The Bible says, “Walk by the Spirit . . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control.” (Galatians 5:16-23).
If you haven’t recently checked under the hood of your life, then maybe it’s time to look inside and see what’s happening. As King Solomon said, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23).
Keeping my spiritual batteries cleaned and filled,
Leave a Reply