One cold November evening, when I was nine years old, our 73 year-old farmhouse caught fire due to a faulty oil space heater. Weather-beaten and aged, the house was completely engulfed in flames within twenty minutes. My father was away on a ministry trip in California thousands of miles away from our western Michigan home. My mother, sister, brother, and I escaped the flames with the clothes on our backs as we ran out of the burning walls. I remember how small my voice seemed against the black frigidness of the night. Sixteen miles away from the nearest town, with our nearest neighbors a quarter mile back from the road, we appeared to be all alone during the horror we were experiencing.
God often uses a fire in our lives to give us something better. Thirteen months after the fire, our family became missionaries to the Congo. Although those years of bush living were difficult, I was able to see the power of the risen Jesus Christ in so many of our experiences. I was given a world view I would not have today. I was introduced to some of the heroes of the faith who had so little materially and yet had eternal riches I could only stand at a distance and long for myself.
What fire has the Lord had you experience lately? Have you looked to find Him and, like I thought that horrible November night long ago, thought He has left you abandoned? Listen to these amazing words of hope, my dear friend!
Psalm 66:11-12 (New International Version, ©2010)
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Isaiah 43:2 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and [when you pass] through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.
Daniel 3:25-27 (New Living Translation)
25 “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!”
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”
So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. 27 Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!
The Lord may be asking you and me to go through the fire, but He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us. He will be right in the fire, shielding us so that we can come out not even smelling of smoke! Hallelujah!
Jason Crabb’s father wrote a song that has meant so much to me. Only those who have been through the fire can sing this and mean it. And on the other side of the fire, as much as we may never want to return to the fire, we can actually praise God for what the fire did to awaken us to Christ’s power in our lives.
May it bless you, whether you are just about to go into the fire, are in the fire, or have just come out.
So many times I questioned
certain circumstances
Or things I could not understand
And many times in trials
weakness blurs my vision
And then my frustration gets so out of hand
Oh but it’s then, I am reminded
I’ve never been forsaken
And i’ve never had to stand one test alone
That’s when I look at all the victories
And the spirit rises up in me
And it’s through the fire
my weakness is made strong
He never promised
that the cross would not get heavy
And the hill would not be hard to climb
He never offered a victory without fighting
But he said help would always come in time
Just remember when your standin
In the valley of decesion and the advesary
says “give in”
Just hold on, our Lord will show up
And he will take you through the fire again
I know within myself
that I would surely perish
Oh but if I trust the mighty hand of God
he’ll shield the flames again, again
He never promised
that the cross would not get heavy
And the hill would not be hard to climb
He never offered a victory without fighting
But he said help would always come in time
Just remember when your standin
In the valley of decesion and the advesary
says “give in”
Just hold on, our Lord will show up
And he will take you through the fire again.
