Today’s Gratitude Challenge: What you are most grateful for in your daily life?
Glass fireplace doors … to keep the smoke out of the house.
I’ve mentioned this before, but when you are using a wood-burning fireplace to heat your home, you have to keep an eye on the fire … or else that lovely blaze you had going will soon go out … within the hour.
I keep getting distracted doing “life things” and when I turn around, lo and behold there’s hardly any coals left! So, I go out to the storage bin on the back deck and load up with small pieces of wood. They’re not huge logs … but they aren’t slivers of kindling either. I toss those into the firebox, thinking that should get it going again.
But no. The coals aren’t hot enough to catch the small pieces of wood on fire.
They are hot enough, however, to cause the small pieces of wood to smolder.
The small pieces of wood sit there and smolder … and smolder … and smolder. The firebox is engulfed in thick smoke swirling around! I step outside to see what the chimney is like … thick smoke is pouring out the chimney. Embarrassing. It’s totally obvious to the entire neighborhood who doesn’t know how to keep a fire going.
A breeze catches the smoke, and it wafts in a big cloud across the yard … and on further across our neighbor’s yard. Embarrassing.
After an inordinate amount of time smoldering and smoking, the small pieces of wood eventually catch fire in an unexpected instantaneous blaze. The fire is now going again.
I am SO thankful for the glass fireplace doors! … which keep all that smoldering smoke inside the firebox and not in our house.
As I watch all the swirling smoldering smoke inside the firebox, I can’t help but think how this is a lot like so many Christians. A lot of Christians claim to be “on fire” for Christ, but they don’t get into the Word of God each day. They don’t keep adding “fuel” to the spiritual fire in their soul. As a result … the coals start to go out.
A lot of Christians think that simply going to church each Sunday is enough to keep the “fire” going in their souls. Showing up to service, singing a few worship songs, hearing an inspirational message … surely that’s enough spiritual “fuel” to keep the spiritual “fire” lit in our lives for this upcoming week.
But it’s not.
It takes regular “fuel” … added to the firebox of our soul on a regular basis.
Eventually, just like me, a lot of Christians realize the fire has just about gone out. So, just like I went out to the wood box and grabbed some additional wood, many people open up their Bible and grab some verses to get the “fire” in their soul going again.
But they don’t have a vibrant active relationship with Jesus Christ. They haven’t been talking to Jesus. They haven’t been listening to God through His Word. They haven’t been paying any attention to the Holy Spirit’s direction and guidance in their lives. The “coals” of their relationship are cool.
When they toss a Scripture verse or two onto those cool “coals” the same thing happens which has been happening to the fire in my firebox … those verses sit there in their soul and smolder. The power of those verses is hampered by the coldness of the “coals” in their soul.
They are quoting verses … but it’s coming out as thick smoke out the chimney. The power of the Holy Spirit is there … the “fuel” is there … it’s just that their relationship with God needs to warm up and get hot enough to catch that “fuel” into powerful flame!
And eventually it does catch! In an instantaneous blaze the fuel catches fire … and the blaze is going again!
Don’t be a cool smoldering Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, keep the fire of your relationship with Jesus burning brightly! If you claim to be a Christian, spend time with God every day … read His Word and listen to what He has to say for you … each day! Add “fuel” to that relationship every day!
If you claim to be a Christian, the power of the Holy Spirit is there … the Holy Spirit wants to fuel the blaze of your life to warm the world around you with the loving warmth of Jesus Christ! Don’t get so distracted with doing “life things” that you let the coals of your relationship with God go cold.
Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:
If I quote lots of Bible verses, and if I look super spiritual, but don’t have love … I am nothing more than a smoldering fire and a smoking chimney.
