Check your fuel.

A car might have a new engine, great body work, smart looking interior... but with no fuel in the tank, no one's going to expect it to get very far.  It's the fuel that allows it to reach its destination. If we want to get ahead in life, we need to spend less time on our outward appearance.  We need to be more concerned with what's going on inside, making sure the tank of our lives is constantly topped up with the right fuel.  Just like if you fill a car up with rotten fuel it isn't going to run right (or at all), filling our lives with the wrong thing will also cause us pain. Many times we find ourselves in rotten situations and wonder how we got there - sometimes things are just unfair, but other times what we put in leads us to trouble.

Life often doesn't turn out as we think it will, so how do we keep going through disappointment and confusion?

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Making sure the fuel we fill our life with is full of faith is essential to leading a life according to God's purpose.  If we are living according to God's purpose then we will not find ourselves in self-induced trouble.

After going through a list of great examples of faith, the writer of Hebrews sums up our position like this:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

Jesus is the founder, the very foundation, of our faith; but he is also it's perfecter. There is nothing greater than Jesus, no 'extra knowledge'; no purer fuel.  Fill yourself up with faith in Jesus, and see how your life runs.