In the middle of my living room is a fireplace with a big Buck Stove. In the winter, this wood stove heats our entire house. Through the glass door, I watch the flames flicker as they engulf the logs and heat a pan of water that sits atop filled with oranges, cranberries, thyme, and cinnamon. I can’t explain it scientifically, but a wood fire brings a warmth and coziness that our electrical central heating unit can’t accomplish.
But it takes more work.
While our stove is very efficient, I still have to tend to it first thing in the morning. I can’t just push a button or turn up the thermostat to keep the flames going. Before I make my coffee, I stir the coals and open the vents to allow a rush of fresh oxygen. As the coals brighten, I add a couple new logs and shut the door. Within minutes, what looked like and extinguished fire turns into a fountain of orange flames that feasts upon the fresh, dry wood. By this time, my family wakes up and we gather around the fire and enjoy its warmth.
Stirring Up The Flames
Throughout church history, the imagery of “kindling” and “stirring up” the fireplace is used to show what happens in the heart when believers engage in spiritual disciplines.1
If we are truly believers, we have the hot coals of God’s grace in our soul. However, over time if we don’t feed the fire, our love can grow cold. Just like I have to stoke the coals and put fresh wood in my fireplace each morning, so believers stoke the coals of our affections through reading and meditating on God’s word and prayer.
Fresh truths from God’s word is like adding a log to the fire. Meditating on God’s word is like letting the flames encompass the wood and get it hot. In response, we talk to God through prayer, which further enflames our affections. The coals feed off each other so those by themselves cool off fastest. Likewise, God gives us a community and those who forsake the gatherings of believers are most in danger of having their affections cooled to a lukewarm faith.
Don’t Let the Fire Burn Out
Spiritual formation is “the conscious process by which we seek to heighten and satisfy our Spirit-given thirst for God through divinely appointed means…”2 If we are believers, we have a heart that desires God, but if we don’t inflame these desires, through God appointed means, any of us can grow cold. We are all “prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.”
If we are not diligent to engage the spiritual disciplines, we are in danger of letting the fire burn out. Last night’s logs will not keep the fire burning today. Stoking the fire last week doesn’t ensure a blazing flame today. Yesterday’s discipline and faith doesn’t necessarily carry over to tomorrow.
Perhaps you had high hopes for a new year of Bible reading, but you have already lost steam. Maybe you planned on praying more regularly, but other things have already choked that out. You hoped to diligently practice biblical meditation, but you can’t seem to make the time. Already, your church attendance has waned.
Let this be an encouragement to keep fighting. Don’t grow discouraged if the fire already looks extinguished, but take the necessary steps to fan it back into flame. Only the Spirit of God can sustain us, but he uses the spiritual disciplines as a means of grace, so don’t neglect them!
Thank you brother–the analogy is perfect. As one who also has a wood stove, I’d add that there’s a lot of work cutting and splitting wood, but it’s not clear if this fits at all with the analogy. Also, I believe you left out a letter “t”–did you intend “meditating” vs “mediating”?
Nice catch! Thanks for letting me know, it has been corrected!