On Fire

We usually have an open fire in the evenings to warm the living room. I’ve noticed that when the newspaper is scrunched up too tightly, it is slow to catch fire and burn. Odd, because we think of paper as highly combustible, yet if it’s too tightly packed, no air can penetrate and it is slow to burn.

We women and men are made to be set on fire for God by the fire of the Holy Spirit. We can be too overwrought, though, or too self-absorbed, so the breath of the Spirit cannot penetrate and the fire cannot catch. We can overthink, over-stress, get ourselves tied up in knots, when really, Jesus says it’s so easy. Just rest in him. Just open up and let his breath inspire us.

I’m so grateful for the modern technology which brings us contemporary and old-fashioned worship songs on YouTube, which brings us sermons and talks on podcasts. We have so much access to fuel which should feed the fire within us, if only we weren’t so anxious.

Trust in me, Jesus says. I’ve been de-cluttering, and in the course of that I’ve been rereading some old Bible study notes from twenty years ago. It’s been an eye-opener to remember the issues which concerned me then, some of them continuously for years, and some flaring briefly and then disappearing. In all of them, I can see the hand of God as he worked things out.

One way to feed the fire within, is to remember what God has done.