Devotions by Rachel #12

Devotional #12-Consuming Fire Hebrews 22:29 “…for our God is a consuming fire.” Several years ago here in Colorado we had the Waldo Fire. People were evacuating their homes. My parents and younger brother had to evacuate and they came and stayed with my sister and I who lived an hour away. Ash was falling from the sky like snow. Humongous gray clouds formed in the sky, but they weren’t actually clouds they were smoke coming from the fire burning the mountains below. Helicopters were dropping a special liquid (that stops the fire from spreading) around the perimeter of the fire. I remember driving in my car one day, and a fire truck on the other side of the road passed me. I was driving away from the fire that was in the mountains, they were driving towards it. The traffic was going so slow that I got to look at many of them because their windows were open. They were tired, not much life was in their face, they were dirty, and exhausted. I imagine it felt like this fire was never going to be over. They kept going into work day and night to fight it. Now I bring this up because the Bible says that God is a consuming fire. He wants to burn every part of our life. He wants to bring light to every area of our minds and hearts. He wants to consume every part of us. Unlike the Waldo Fire in Colorado, God is a good fire and we want His fire to spread. Our flesh can be like the firemen who tirelessly work to put out the fire or keep it from spreading. We don’t want to give up certain areas of our life. We tell God the perimeters that we will allow Him to burn within. But He is God, who are we to tell Him perimeters? He consumes. And if we truly want Him, we must want Him to consume every part of us. If you notice certain areas of your life that you do not want to hand over to Christ, maybe first start with the prayer, “God change my heart and help me to want you to consume every part of me.” Matthew 3:11 “He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Romans 6:13 “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.”