Being a Burning 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 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, 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 puts material possessions and the value of life in entirely different priority brackets.
Before moving to the Midwest, my family and I lived in a community in the San Gabriel Mountains, West of Los Angeles, for over 20 years. When the fire season began every year, our home and community were often on high alert. Several times, a mandatory evacuation of our area was enforced due to fires coming within a tenth of a mile from our community. Therefore, this issue is a bit more personal for me, and maybe that’s why God used it to get my attention.
A Divine Revelation
When fires would break out every year, I’d pray for the fire victims and ask God to show Himself in these tragedies. 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, “Daughter, 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 the cares of this world, the fear, pride, and the desires of the flesh, leaving only what is pure and unblemished, like gold tried in a furnace. I wish I could say my answer to Him was yes, but sadly, it wasn’t.
A Divine Challenge
If God’s fire in us could burn with the same intensity as the fires in California each year, 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 tells the story of an encounter with God that challenged Moses to do the miraculous and deliver the Israelites from 400 years of captivity. It was also a vivid word picture for 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. To be the Moses of our time and deliver those enslaved by sin to a life of freedom and forgiveness in Christ. 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 be used by You 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!T