“The Spirit of God like a fire is burning!” (William W. Phelps, “The Spirit Of God”). The two things that a fire needs are air and fuel. As long as those two things are present you can pretty much keep a fire going indefinitely. If we want the Spirit of God to be burning like a fire within our hearts, then we need to make sure that we have plenty of air and fuel for that fire to burn. There are thoughts that can grip us and choices we can make that will, if we pile them upon our soul, smother the flame and choke the fire and quench the Spirit. When we allow guilt and shame, doubts and fears, foolishness and selfishness to descend upon us like a dark, sodden blanket of despair, then no air can get in and the fire will go out. As we repent, swiftly and constantly, we clear out all of the heaviness and our soul can breathe and the fire can burn. But we also need fuel for this fire if we want to keep it lit. If we imagine each prompting or personal revelation from the Holy Ghost is like a lit match, then we need to be smart about how we use that match. We can't just toss the match on top of a great big log and hope that a big bonfire will suddenly appear. When the Spirit touches our hearts and our minds, we want to do and to be better. This is a good thing. That's why He's doing it. But sometimes we don't want to patiently and meekly fix one tiny thing for now. We want to fix everything all at once. Good is fine and better is great but perfect would be best of all. But applying the match directly to a big log is just going to end up with a burnt out match and maybe a little scorch mark on the surface of a log. If we try to become perfect immediately, then we're just going to burn out. We have to start with the little things. Read one verse of Scripture. Say a thirty second prayer, even if we don't bother to roll out of bed and kneel for it. Give the busker on the corner a smile, even if we can't give them a dollar. These are the pine needles and bits of paper and small twigs that we can use as kindling to get the fire started. Maybe we still lose our temper sometimes, but maybe we've also started to apologize a little more, and not just in the fake way of I'm sorry if your feelings got hurt but owning up to what we did and trying to fix it. The thing is, our fuel for the fire is going to come from our mistakes. If faith is like a seed that grows into a tree, we don't want to chop down a perfectly healthy tree to throw into the fire. We want to take up all of the stunted half-trees that withered and died because we got distracted or lazy or willfully stubborn and allowed them to die, all of desiccated branches of otherwise healthy trees - the things that we tried but weren't ready for - that need to be cut away because they are a weight on the rest of the tree, and all of the sticks and twigs that have been scattered by the winds of adversity or sheared off by the lightning bolts of tragedy, and add all of this deadwood to the fire. The Spirit can take every loss we've suffered, every dream we were forced to abandon, every plan that was stolen from us by the selfish or malevolent choices of others, and transform all of them into light and warmth. When it is warm and sunny and everything seems to be going right, we may not always see the value in making sure that our hearts have enough air and fuel to keep the Spirit of God like a fire burning, but so often in life we find ourselves in the bitter cold and the terrifying dark and if we have prepared ourselves and have developed the habit of consistently repenting and offering to the Lord all of the deadwood that we have collected, then we will have that bright and cheery flame of the Spirit as our constant companion to see us through the darkest and coldest nights.
