Are You On Fire for God?

From my MySpace Blog originally posted Monday 14/08/2006

Do we really know what it means to be on fire for God?

I'll bet most of us are thinking that being "on fire" means that we are excited or "revved up." And while this can be esoterically true, it really doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what it means to be on fire for God.

A beautiful song by the Christian band, Among Thorns:

"Start a Fire" as recorded by Among Thorns

Start a fire in me
Let the flames run free
Burn away the dross
Holy fire of God So let it begin
Let it be new
Let me be used for Your sake
Giving glory to Your name
I can live Knowing that You
Reside in my heart
Oh Lord You are a fire

Let's look at the "fire" in question. Truly, in the context of the song, "fire" refers to a refiner's fire. So, what is that? According to the bible and history, a refiner's fire is a flame used by metal smiths to purify the metal they are working with, particularly gold and silver.

"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire" - Malachi 3:2 (NKJV)

A modern translation reads: "But who can live through the day of His coming? Who can stand when He shows Himself? For He is like a fire for making gold pure" - Malachi 3:2 (NLV)

In Malachi 3, he is speaking of the coming day of judgment.

God IS so very pure, perfect, holy and righteous that there is no way we can even hope to come close to His grand, supreme, wonderful, and eternal existence. A pitiful example would be to compare a worn, tattered, white shirt, riddled with holes and stains that it looks irreparably grimy next to a never fading, pristine, perfectly white shirt, that is so bright, it almost glows in sunlight.

When we go before God on the day of judgment, it will not matter what good we have done, we are still just like filthy clothes or like a piece of metal that hasn’t been refined and left a dull, rough mess.

Sounds pretty dismal, huh?

There is good news here. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and trust in Him as our master, the refiner's fire starts to burn away all those nasty stains and that filthy dross (impurities, imperfections, superfluous and useless stuff) in our lives.

Yes, being on fire can mean having a gung-ho attitude about God and our Christian faith. But a more beautiful thing is for God to be that fire in us that constantly renews us in His plan, honor and glory. His fire helps us cope with our "dross" and burns it away as we grow as Christians.

I am very blessed to be "on fire" for God.