Lighting The Fire

Don’t hesitate to be enthusiastic—be on fire in the Spirit as you serve the Lord! Romans 12:11 (Common English Bible)

I’m not much of a camper. I’m more of a hotel kind of girl. But I do enjoy the challenge of lighting a good fire. As I learned when we got a wood-burning stove, you can’t just hold up a match to a big log and expect it to do more than blacken the edge. You have to have kindling and in-between-size pieces of wood. These catch fire much more easily, and they only need to burn long enough to ignite the big logs.

Of course if that log is wet, you’ll never get it to burn.

Sometimes we speak of our spiritual lives as a fire. We ask God to “light the fire in my heart again.” When we talk about being “on fire,” we mean things like being very excited, zealous, or productive. All of these are good goals for the Christian.

But building a campfire is not always easy, and it can also be difficult to light the fires of Christian zeal.

Sometimes we try to burn a big log with no kindling. We get a big idea, we start planning a big program to accomplish some great work, and we expect great things because our God is a great God who can do anything! Then if our big program doesn’t succeed, we become discouraged. Did we have any kindling, or did we try to jump into something huge without laying the proper groundwork? Did we pray about it? Did we forget to do the small things? No matter how pure our motives, we can’t expect God to bless a plan to reach millions if we‘re too busy to help the person right next to us.

On the other hand, we might need to ask ourselves if we’re burning up nothing but kindling. We pray, read our Bibles, go to church. We’re honest and hard-working. But maybe it’s time to step out in faith and try to serve God in some way that is a little more ambitious.

Sometimes we’re trying to light a fire with wet wood. We want to serve God; we do all the things we can think to do, but we just don’t feel the passion that we would like to feel. This could be because we know we have sin in our life, and until we repent of it, there’s a distance between us and God that we can try to ignore, but which will hinder our closeness with Him no matter how many good works we do.

More scary than that is the possibility that we may be distancing ourselves from God by some unknown sin. The Pharisees thought they were closer to God than anyone else. But Jesus condemned them as spiritually blind. If I’m struggling to light the spiritual fire in my heart, it may be time for some deeper soul-searching than I’ve been willing to do before. It may be time to humble myself before God and turn the fire-lighting business over to Him.

Because there’s something else you have to have to start a fire— a match, or a torch, a spark— let the sun burn through a magnifying glass if you have to— but you have to have a source. And when it comes to being on fire for the Lord, He Himself is the only source. He’s the match!

If you don’t feel that fire, perhaps You haven’t connected to the Source. But you can.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

And remember, fires do wax and wane. They don’t burn at the same intensity all the time. They require consistent tending. Make sure you’re providing enough oxygen to your fire. Ask the Holy Spirit to be present in your life.

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! Luke 11:13

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me… and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me! Psalm 51:11-12 NIV

Dear God, I pray for Your Holy Spirit to fill me with a passion for serving in Your kingdom. Reveal any sin that may be hindering me. I humbly ask You to bless the works that You have called me to do, however great or small. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

by Christie Cole Atkins

Related reading:

Fear Of Fire

Honeymoon