Theology & Life

I haven’t been around a campfire too many times in my life, but I do know this: after you get the fire going, you must stoke it occasionally to keep it going. This is the same principle as it relates to our passion for the Lord. It is far easier, however, to let the fire for God inside of you wane than it is to keep to going. But that’s the Christian life, isn’t it?

We all struggle to maintain the same fire, the same zeal we had for the Lord when He initially saved us. When we allow the cares of this world, the opinions of peers, the sufferings we experience to dictate how we feel about the Lord, that’s when we stop actively stoking the fire. It eventually dies out when we neglect it.

Don’t neglect it.

Do you need to stoke your fire? Are you less zealous and passionate now than you were when God saved you? I fear that answer is Yes, as I would contend is the answer for all of us. All Christians deal with this to varying degrees. For one reason or another, our passion for God Himself—not doing things for God—dwindles. (Remember: doing things for God is not the same as communing with God. We must be cautious about that.) We put less effort into Bible reading. We don’t pray nearly as much as we should. We find ourselves apathetic to rich local church fellowship. We cave to temptation and fall into sin quicker. Our repentance is slower.

What do you do in this predicament? What’s your go-to when you are aware that you’ve stopped stoking the fire, that your passion for knowing the Lord has decreased?

Think of it this way. When you get sick—like vomiting sick—and can’t keep anything down, the last thing you want to do is eat or drink anything. Problem is, you’ll only make things worse if you don’t consume something to stay hydrated (I have made that mistake many times and found myself in the ER just to receive fluids). What you must do is nibble on saltine crackers and take sips of water, Gatorade, or anything else akin to that. The more you do that, and can keep it down, generally, the faster you’ll get better.

The same is true with stoking the fire of our passion for God. If our appetite is waning, we must still do something. Doing nothing only makes it worse. Read small portions of Scripture. Go over verses in your head that you may have memorized. Ask, plead, cry out to God for help. When you don’t feel like fellowshipping with other believers, push through it. Do the thing you don’t feel like doing. You will come out on the other side thankful you didn’t listen to your flesh. There is incredible value in fellowship with other Christians. Don’t underestimate that, believer. Being around other like-minded believers will help you get the fire aflame, or will help you rekindle it.

If you want to keep the fire going, you have to feed it. Feed your passion for God by surrounding yourself with others who care about your soul. Yes—you need to be in the Word above all else. Read the Word, study the Word, expose your heart to the Word. And, of course, get on your knees in prayer to the point where you’re bleeding. But make sure you’re in close proximity with other Christians who want to see you grow, who want to see you flourish by the Spirit’s power in your walk with Jesus.

The last thing you should do, Christian, is let the fire die. Keep stoking it.