Chances are you’ve built a campfire or two. You start with small stuff to get it going and then add more and bigger pieces of wood. Before long you can have a pretty good fire. In the course of an evening, you might add wood several times to keep a good fire. As long as you add, it will stay blazing.
Have you ever noticed by morning, when the fire is gone, that if you stir around in the ashes there are usually enough coals left to get another fire going? Add a few sticks, then a few pieces of wood and before you know it, you’ve got a good morning campfire.
Has there ever been a time in your life when all that was left of your believing was a few smoldering coals buried beneath the ashes of a fire that once burned hot for God? Has your ‘believing God’ died down to a ‘believing in God’?
I read recently that there are certain times in people’s lives that they are more mindful of God than normal. I don’t remember the entire list, but the birth of a child was there; a tragic event like 9/11 was pretty high on the list. But #1 was the Christmas season.
When I first had the thought of writing this, I thought of it from the perspective of what we can do – need to do – to get our fires burning for God again. But I thought when I saw these statistics that it is not just all on us. God Himself comes to stir. He uses these times to stir around in the ashes that are left of our believing. He exposes the embers – fans them – hoping to rekindle our fire.
My prayer this morning, as it is now in the heart of the Christmas season, is that while there is this stirring, some would be compelled to keep a fire. To do so, one must simply add wood on a regular basis. It is really just that simple. The word of God is our wood. It is like a consuming fire. Add enough and you will burn for God.
Hunger and Thirst 
I am stirred by the thought of it not all being up to us, that God Himself stirs us up and reignites those embers. 🙂 That is the kind of God we have, isn’t it? Not willing to just sit back and let our fires die out even if we are.
Loved the ending! Loren, at answersfromthebook , used the same verse at the end of his post today, about our God being a consuming fire.
You fire me up and help me want to stay burning for God! Thank you! deb
Has your ‘believing God’ died down to a ‘believing in God’?
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Indeed, there is a world of difference between the two, isn’t there?
I would add that there is a reason that The Holy Spirit is portrayed as fire, and not as a bucket of water. Your post here explains why.
Nicely done, sir.
When I first thought of this, I thought about it in relation to the guys from jail. They all have stories about God – they all believe in God. But I realized their believing was not sufficient to significantly change the way they lived. Their believing, which in some cases had been strong, had died down to a believing in.
And then the statistic about the Christmas season; there are a lot of people there as well. They believe but their believing has not significantly changed the way they live. Christmas becomes one of the few times in a year that there believing is stirred.
Whether our fire has been reduced to a bed of smoldering embers or we actually have a bit of a fire going, there are the things we can do and things that God does to get our fires burning hotter.
Mike,
Something to chew on:
Is it believing in Jesus that matters, or is it living for Jesus that matters? Or is it a mixture of both?
These are not loaded questions.
I am asking this based on some conversations I have had with both types of folks- those who believe that belief is enough, and those who believe that you must live properly for it to be enough.
This is a really real issue that many folks have argued about for thousands of years, I’m sure. Belief vs. Action.
Thoughts?
(Sorry to get off-track from your beautiful posting. Perhaps we could dive into this issue later?)
Donald,
I have never found a clear answer to this question. I guess if there was a clear one, there wouldn’t be so much debate about it. I’m not one to pull up a lot of scripture to establish my position, but I will make a few comments – for what little they are worth – that is based on the whole of scripture as I read it.
I do believe that when we believe, heaven’s nature is born in us. To the extent that we feed that nature it will grow. In the parrable of the sower some seed does not mature. In fact, a lot of it dies. Who knows when our believing dies – how little our believing shrinks to before it is not counted. I don’t think the Lord is quick to write us off if our believing has digressed; in fact I think He does all to rekindle it as my campfire story suggest.
I don’t know where our believing is too little to get us to heaven. But the other issue is the life we can have here. I do believe there is a believing that will get us into heaven but is just simply short of the type of believing that will get heaven into us here. Again, part of the point in my story.
If I go any further, I will probably be in more danger of confusing the issue than clarifying it. (Less is more sometimes) So I will leave it here for now.
Mike
Great post! I love the campfire analogy. Thanks.