This may not be the most earth-shattering announcement you will read today: my printer is running out of black ink. It used to be that we would not discover this until the printer actually had run out of ink and the printed material came out faded, feint or just blank. That could be incredibly annoying, especially if it happened in the middle of a long print-run, and even more-so if it happened when the shops were closed and we didn’t have a replacement cartridge.

So I am grateful that my printer has told my computer to tell me that it is running out of black ink, and that it has considerately done so before it has actually run out of ink in order to give me time to get a replacement cartridge.

I think the same applies to us if our relationship with God is going a bit faint (as opposed to feint). There are signs: a lack of desire to go to church; a loss of enthusiasm for reading our Bible and for praying; a nagging sense that we are not as close to God as we used to be. These are all indicators that the cartridge is running low. Of course we don’t replace it, but it needs replenishing. And (perhaps ironically) the very things that we lose interest in are the very things that can help us reconnect with God.

If you sense the faint-ness creeping in, ask God’s Spirit to rekindle the desire to worship. Ask him to help you to regain that desire to read the Bible and to pray. Seek his help to renew your faith. If you want to know a good place to begin the replenishing I would suggest you start with a gospel. Reconnect with the Jesus who is at the heart of our faith. Put yourself in the middle of the crowd as you watch and listen to him. Join in at the back of the group of disciples as he teaches them. Watch from a distance as you see him arrested, tried, crucified. Join in the celebrations as he is resurrected.

Be blessed, be a blessing