“Fuel for the Fire”

“Fuel for the Fire”

“His word was in my heart like a burning fire.” Jeremiah 20:9 

Following last week’s message on ‘hearts growing cold’, now let’s concentrate on fueling a fire in our hearts. A fire will only burn so long without fuel.  Without feeding it, it will soon turn to coals and then to ashes where it grows cold and dead.  This is just the nature of things.

 

When we go to my son’s cabin, every evening he builds a huge fire in the fire pit.  While we sit around he is continually putting more wood on it so our blazing fire will keep burning. It sounds so simple; fuel feeds the fire.  However, when it comes to our internal spiritual fire, it’s not so easy.  It seems as though fuel is not so readily available.  A cold heart can be heated up with a little effort on our part and the love of a Godly Father. 

After Jesus had been crucified and some claimed he was risen again, two men who were believers were traveling to a nearby town called Emmaus.  As they walked they were discussing all the things that had happened in the last three days.  Another man came and began walking with them and began sharing scriptures.  It was Jesus, but their eyes were made so they could not know who he was. They all stopped at an inn to eat and Jesus broke bread with them.  Suddenly their eyes were open and they knew who he was and then he vanished.  What happened to those men from being with Jesus?  It tells us in Luke 24:32, “And they said to one another, "Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”  

I’ve had to ask myself some hard questions such as, how often do I just sit and read the Bible and take time to think on what I just read. When do I take time to get away and pray to my heavenly Father?  When I close my eyes in sleep at night, is He the last thought on my mind and when I wake in the morning, is He the first thing I think of when I open my eyes? 

God is not going to do these things for you, but he is waiting right there for you to come back to Him as you once did.  What is going on between you and the Lord is fuel for the fire of your heart.  If nothing is going on with the Lord, the fire dries up because of the lack of fuel.  You may say, “I want to get closer to God”, but you really don’t want to take the time or effort. 

When your gas tank is on empty, you head to the gas station to fill it up.  If you don’t, that car isn’t going anywhere.   It’s the same with your heart; if you don’t refill it; you will never get any closer to God and when the fire goes out, you are of no service.  You are just there because you once accepted Jesus as your Savior.  You may still be sitting there after the Rapture has come and gone.  Salvation is a free gift from God, but after that he expects something of us.  Are we leading others to the Lord; are we helping others and giving to those who can’t give in return.  There are hundreds of opportunities to express Christian love and the Lord expects it of us to act on them. 

On the other hand, just being a do-gooder without a relationship with the Trinity (God – Jesus – Holy Spirit) won’t get you into heaven. If we are not following the way of the Lord and living to satisfy our own wants and pleasures, He won’t want you.  “Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”  Matt. 7:22-23 

I believe we are living in a time when we must make a decision to serve God with our whole being or we will perish.  If our hearts are not burning within us like the men on their way to Emmaus, we will not be able to stand up for God in the days to come.  Go to God in prayer, read the Word and reach out to the lost and God will sustain you. 

There is a scripture that I keep returning to time after time when my flame begins to waiver and it is this in Psalm 51:10-13.  Don’t just read it, but think on each part of it; it can save your soul.  Divide it into sections and see what it is really speaking to you about.   

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Psalm 51:10-13

First, ask God to cleanse your heart.  We have a fireplace and have to sweep the hearth of ashes and dirt, so when we start another fire, it burns better.  So it is we need our own heart cleansed and the ashes swept away.

Second, ask God to renew your spirit.  As time goes by and your inward spirit grows week; your attitudes can pull you down.  God wants to renew your spirit if you let him.  “Lord, renew my spirit and change my attitude toward you and others so you can use me.”

Thirdly, ask God to draw you closer to him and to once again know the presence of the Holy Spirit at work within you.

Fourthly, ask God to help you remember the joy you felt in your heart when you were first saved and you knew it.  I know that I want to feel that joy and peace like I did the day I asked you into my heart.

Fifthly, ask God to lift you up as the eagles fly, for he has given you a free spirit to fly as high as you want to or as low. 

Sixth, until you do 1-5 you won’t have the ability to do the work God has called you to.  Notice in the last line of this verse it says ‘then’.  Only then are you able to teach sinners the ways of God and lead them to you. You must be prepared to minister to others so their souls might be saved.

If you really study what I have written here from the Bible, you should already feel the heat of God reaching into your heart.  Take this fuel and start the fire; watch it grow as you become closer to the Lord.  Keep trying until His fire burns bright within you.

[Next week is Father’s Day and I will have a message about that.  In two weeks, I have a message that will either stir you out of complacency or strike you with terror; don’t miss it.]