Is Your Life a Non-Consuming Blazing Bush for God?
Exodus 3:2
“And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.”
The fire seasons in the state of California are some of the deadliest in the country. The death tolls are often high and damage to homes can be in the billions of dollars. Sadly, most of these wildfires are started by senseless arson. These disasters not only have devastating ramifications for those in the fire’s path but also for the hundreds of thousands of people who watch the media coverage of them. The coverage can be so intense that it’s difficult to watch without feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness and deep sadness for those who have lost everything. For many Californians, it put things (material possessions) in a whole different priority bracket.
My family and I, lived in a mountain community in the San Gabrielle Mountains west of Los Angeles for over 20 years. This area is often threatened by forest fires, and therefore, this issue is a tad bit more personal and a little too close for comfort. When the fire season began every year, our home and community were often on high alert. When fires broke out, I’d pray for the fire victims and asked God to show Himself in these tragedies. As always, He did not disappoint me.
A Divine Revelation
However, during one of those times, He answered my prayer with a question that genuinely humbled me with its spiritual implications and challenged me to see a spiritual parallel with these fires that I had not considered before. His question to me was, “SHERRIE, IS MY FIRE BURNING IN YOUR HEART WITH THAT KIND OF INTENSITY?” A fire that is so intense that the world cannot extinguish it. A fire that rearranges the priorities of your life and puts everything into alignment with My perspective. A fire that burns away all fear, all pride, all malice, all the cares of this world, all the desires of your flesh and leaves only what is pure and unblemished, like gold tried in a furnace. I wish I could have answered Him with a yes, but sadly, I could not.
A Divine Challenge
If God’s fire in us could burn with the same intensity as the fires that devastate so many lives and destroy so much property, imagine the spiritual impact this would have and the revival this would ignite in the world around us. The burning bush experience in the book of Exodus was a Holy God challenging Moses to do the miraculous and free the Israelites from 400 years of captivity. The burning bush was also a vivid word picture to Moses that although this challenge of God would test him, as with the bush, the trial would not consume him.
Call to Action
Today, God is asking you and me to be His burning bush to the world around us. So, let me ask you the same question He asked me. Is God’s fire burning in your heart with that kind of intensity? If it isn’t, ask God to ignite your heart with His holy fire. If it is, dear Christian, LET IT BURN!
Father, may we, like Moses, embrace the call on our lives to deliver a lost and dying world from darkness, hopelessness, and despair. For such were we before You set us free. So, ignite in each of our hearts a fire that will burn brightly for You! In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen!