Keep the Fire Burning

“Once we were safe on shore….Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire…”

‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭28‬:‭1‬a,‭3‬a NLT‬‬

My primary reason for writing today is to encourage myself. So if you find yourself encouraged too, that’s a bonus blessing for me! 

Today I started a short devotional by Vlad Slavchuk called “How to stay on fire for God.” (https://www.bible.com/en/reading-plans/34538 ). His main point was that you only build a fire to the extent that you overcome the excuses of your flesh. And I completely agree. However, that was only part of what landed deeply in my spirit today. The passage that he used was the beginning of Acts 28. He was talking about the fact that Paul had many excuses to not build a fire, but he chose to do it anyway. The passage in question was Acts 28:1-5. As I read it, it caused me to go back and read Acts 27 for context and that’s where the Lord met me. That’s where he challenged me.

At the beginning of Acts 28, we find Paul on a beach gathering sticks to build a fire. Acts 27 tells us Paul was already a prisoner when he shouldn’t have been. He was put on a boat and he heard the Lord say that they shouldn’t sail or they’d be shipwrecked. Faithfully, he told the crew the Lord’s warning…and they ignored him. Then when the shipwreck did happen, he still gave everyone the Lord’s hope and encouragement for survival. Next, he had to make it to shore, which presumably involved a lot of exhausting swimming in rough seas. THEN, when he got to shore, he didn’t just sit there, he gathered firewood. Whilst doing that, he was bitten by a snake. And then, because of how he overcame the effects of the snake, people came to him for healing and he healed them and, presumably, shared the Gospel with them.

How many opportunities Paul had to be discouraged and feel sorry for himself! How many times I would’ve wanted to give up if I was in his place. It was relentless. 

Yet, the midst of it all, he kept his eyes on Jesus and his focus on the assignment he’d been given. He persevered. He denied his flesh what it would have craved, and he chose the Lord’s better, harder way. No self-pity. No “I told you so”. No “I shouldn’t even be here”. He kept his focus on the Lord through everything. He didn’t deny the hard; he chose Jesus IN it.

Today, Holy Spirit used that Truth to bring me to my knees and brought me to a prayer of surrender and recommissioning. He brought me to a realisation: I have a choice whether I gather sticks for the fire that keeps my faith burning.

Holy Spirit is the flame, but I need to provide the fuel. I have a responsibility. I have a part to play.

Lord, I want to be like Paul. I know it will come a huge cost, but I want to love You like he did. I want to witness for You like that. I want to persevere like that. Please show me where I’ve abandoned building the fire. Where I’ve been overcome…by my flesh and how hard the journey feels. By being wrongly judged. By others not listening to the warnings You ask me to share. By feeling like it’s too much for too long. By feeling like just when I get my feet on dry land, there’s more work to do. By faithfully doing the work and being attacked by the enemy in the midst of it. By others wanting more from me than I think I have to give. I don’t want to neglect the fire any longer. Holy Spirit, please fill me afresh today. Help me choose You today, regardless of what I feel. Let me deny my flesh and feed my spirit with Your Spirit. 

Help me to choose to pick up sticks…to choose worship. To choose praying in the Spirit. To choose communion with You. Help me to place stick after stick, log after log on the fire of my faith. If I don’t bring the wood, You have nothing to keep burning. I’m so sorry for not bringing my part. For settling for being wrongly accused, not listened to, cold, wet and bitten, instead of choosing to pursue You in the midst of it all. Please forgive me. Please restore me. Please rekindle the fire in me by Your Holy Spirit. I want to burn for You.

Today, I’m choosing to seek His presence and choosing to gather sticks. Will you join me? If you’re in that place of feeling like everything is too much and your fire is burning low, will you play your part and pick up sticks?

And today, if you can’t bring yourself to pick up sticks, reach out to somebody else and tell them where you’re at. Ask them to pick up sticks for you. The Bible tells us to encourage one another and to build one another up (1 Thess 5:11), to spur one another on (Heb 10:24). Sometimes, we need somebody else to get alongside us and to share their sticks. To stand in the gap for us and protect us from enemy attack whilst our fire is low (Ez 22:30). To hope for us. To believe for us. To lend us what they have until we are warmed enough by the fire to pick up sticks for ourselves. Don’t let the fire die.

“God has willed that we should seek and find his living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man.

Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer