Fireside Chat [Noval]

Bread of life, come and strengthen me that I might live out loud- in holiness, purity, hope, endurance, faith, service, humility.

You gave Solomon a blank check (1 Kings 3): “ask Me what you will and it’s yours”- and he asked for wisdom and a discerning heart for the sake of serving Your people.  Lord, increase those qualities in me that empower me to serve.  I need to hear your voice- your voice is life!

We’re in the cabin, but not at the table.  Rather, we sit side by side in two rocking chairs.  We hold mugs of hot coffee.  In front of us is a crackling fire.  I can smell the aroma of the burning logs.

Lord, Your word has all sort of allusions and references to fire. The Refiner’s fire.  The fire of Pentecost.  The promise of protection when we walk through the fires of persecution and suffering.  Peter was warming himself by a fire when he denied you, and he was with You by a fire when You restored him.  Lord, what would You say to me?

This COVID plague is a type of fire.  It refines, purifies, tests people, organizations and institutions.  It creates health problems, to be sure, but the social problems aren’t so much created as they are revealed; the deep social, political, racial and economic schisms in your nation may have been exacerbated by COVID, but they weren’t created by it.  When you face difficulties, setbacks, challenges, etc, sometimes hidden things get revealed.  Sometimes the depths of a man’s profanity and vulgarity are thing’s he’s totally unaware of until the hammer hits his thumb! 

When the impurities in your soul get revealed by the fire (or the hammer!), the temptation is often to try to run from Me, to try to hide what you don’t want Me to see.  That’s absurd, of course, if you think about it.  But it’s not at all what I desire.  I want you to run to me with your junk.  My goal in revealing your flaws and sin is never shame or isolation or self-condemnation.  It’s always redemption.  Every time I reveal an infected place in your soul through whatever means, the goal is healing.  When you look around you and see the mature saints, the ones walking in love, humility, wisdom and gentleness, you can be sure they’ve had numerous encounters with the Refiner’s fire and have responded by running into My arms.