Don’t Allow The Fire To Be Extinguished

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God said to Moses,> “The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”’ (Leviticus 6:13); “Is not My word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29); ‘Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.’ (Romans 12:11)

These three verses, and many others, tell of the fire of God that once ignited, should never go out.  The Tabernacle/Temple fire was to burn continually, and likewise, as Paul extorts in Romans, we being individual Temples of the Lord, hosting the Holy Spirit, should also have His fire burning within us continually. 

With the fire of the Holy Spirit emplaced in us, dwelling within us, we are to use this to be beacons of light to show the love of Christ to the world and to call those to Him, through us, by our Guiding Light.  (This is not a plug for the old soap opera of the same name.)

Now how to we feed and stoke this fire?  For many of us, we have those times where we ebb and flow like the tides of the ocean, with our Faith and walk with Jesus; we fall either into a secular pursuit (career, relationship, hobbies) or we allow ourselves become stagnant in our walk, and allow things to become rote and routine (go to church, write a check, say the same prayer – over and over again). 

First, in reading the above statement, look into the mirror (figuratively, though if you do this literally it’s OK, too) and do a self-evaluation of your relationship with Christ, and make a commitment to renew it.  As Jeremiah 23:29 states, there is fire in God’s Word; you can rekindle the Spiritual fire within you by reading a passage or two to start. 

Evaluate your prayer life, and allow our Lord to do some ‘hammer-time’ on a concern or issue in your life by asking Him through a prayer specifically focused on that issue.  Don’t use a rote, memorized prayer (like ‘Now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep-I-pray-the-Lord-my-soul-to-keep…’) but allow yourself to freely speak to Him in your own words for this one specific item.   Ask the Lord what task within His Kingdom he needs you to accomplish; working for the Lord can reignite His fire within you as well.

If you know of someone who may not get this blog or is not able to read it and needs some fuel for their fire, reach out in fellowship and talk to them.  Ask if they need prayer, or if there is something they need from a Spiritual perspective.  Your fire can help someone else restart their fire. 

Sometimes it needs some overhaul work, like adding some oil or installing a new wick to a lamp to get it to light again, or to at least have it burn as bright as it should.  Between prayer, Scripture-reading, and Godly fellowship we can stoke the fire in each of us to be that beacon of light coming from the flame.