THE FIRE WITHIN
4/20/21 THE FIRE WITHIN
This morning I downloaded a new devotional into my e-sword app. It inspired me and I enjoyed responding.
April 20 DEVOTIONAL FROM GRACE FOR THE MOMENT
The Fire of Your Heart
My God, I want to do what you want. Your teachings are in my heart. — Psa_40:8
Want to know God’s will for your life? Then answer this question: What ignites your heart? Forgotten orphans ? Untouched nations ? The inner city ? The outer limits? Heed the fire within!
Do you have a passion to sing? Then sing! Are you stirred to manage? Then manage! Do you ache for the ill? Then treat them! Do you hurt for the lost? Then teach them!
As a young man I felt the call to preach. Unsure if I was correct in my reading of God’s will for me, I sought the counsel of a minister I admired. His counsel still rings true. “Don’t preach,” he said, “unless you have to.”
As I pondered his words I found my answer: “I have to. If I don’t, the fire will consume me.”
What is the fire that consumes you?
The Great House of God (Max Lucado / Grace for the Moment)
MY RESPONSE: I have spent considerable time the last 2 years searching for what drives me, motivates me in life. The one key word I could come up with was Connection. I need to connect with God every day and need to connect with loved ones every day. Connection to me is meaningful 2-way reciprocal communication. For me it can be a hello, if I totally know, without a doubt that it was the Lord speaking to me. His greeting comes to life when I realize He cared enough to think about me, speak to me. His heart connected with mine. I realized during my years of going through transition in fellowship with Him from PM bed to AM chair… that when I didn’t connect, I became discouraged. Even if He spoke, but if my faith didn’t connect (through receiving/ believing/ embracing it personally) then it was not connection.
I discovered during this time how fragile, how important our faith is to really connecting with Him. I went on a journey to remove the self imposed limitations that kept me from connecting. The walls/ layers of limitations: Doubt was one wall. Trauma was another. People have many layers of resistance, hard places that need to melt, in order to come into the fullness of what He intends. I am still working on them!
I turned to this Word to Ponder and it reinforced how strongly I need to connect with Him and loved ones.
WORD TO PONDER: GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY WATER
In the coolness of the morning when the dew is still present, there is a lingering presence of refreshing rest. As the sun rises in the sky, your petals embrace the warmth and come alive to follow its path. But when high noon passes, morning’s dew is but a dim memory, and as the earth bakes in midday, what was not watered now wilts.
Precious one, just like the fragile plants that blossom in the summer’s heat, you need daily water. You may not miss your daily water after having rested and enjoying My lingering dewy Presence. But come mid-afternoon when the heat of stress has taken its toll, what was not tended early now wilts. Beloved, take your time to draw from Me. Like a soon to be thirsty plant, draw deeply to water your roots – whether you feel that you need it or not. Saturate each and every day with prayer, worship, thanksgiving, meditation on My Word and receive fellowship in My Spirit. Sometimes you need long waterings, sometimes brief, but you need to be watered every day. These places of quenching are very important to your daily standing, otherwise you will wilt in the heat of the day.
Ps 63:1-2 NKJV
God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.
