Preventative Maintenance
In the world of maintenance for vehicles especially in commercial fleets there are two opposing ideologies for maintaining vehicles. There is preventative maintenance and breakdown maintenance. Preventative maintenance is when vehicles are routinely inspected, lubed, and worn parts replaced before they fail, and breakdown maintenance is when you simply run the vehicle until it literally breaks down and fix it then. Obviously, breakdown maintenance is the more costly, time consuming and dangerous of the two. Many tragic vehicle accidents have been attributed to lack of maintenance.
In the life of David, we see this contrast demonstrated so vividly. In Psalm 139 we find King David cherishing a close walk and communion with God. So much in fact he finishes the chapter by asking the Lord to “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me,” David in seeking the Lord’s “inspection” wants to maintain his close walk with God by looking for sin or anything that would break down their fellowship. Unfortunately, in Psalm 51 we see King David at the other end of the spectrum. He had stopped maintaining his walk with the Lord and it ended in a breakdown that cost him the death of four sons, his testimony, and left him begging God for restoration. Little “sin” left unchecked and unfixed resulted in catastrophe. Yes, God restored him but there were definite earthly consequences.
May we as Christians seek His “inspection” daily to maintain our productive life in service of the KING! Let’s keep our hearts open to the Lord’s inspection!!