Love on Ice or A BURNING LOVE?

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© www.godsbreathpublications.com

 

When we think of love in a relationship we usually think of words like passion, desire, fervor, delight. Most all of us have felt these emotions and feelings, especially when it comes to the opposite sex. But we’ve also known those relationships that have grown cold with time. Passion fades, desires die, fervor passes and what once delighted us in the other person no longer generates the same emotions.

 

In some relationships this cooling of emotions can be normal as we move on in our friendships with others and what we desire or seek to fulfill our lives. In other more important relationships like marriage it can be deadly. Relationships, like marriage, that require commitment and dedication demand constant work and effort. Failure to spend time and energy at such a relationship leads to at best, ambivalence and at worst, divorce.

 

Our relationship with our Heavenly Father is no different. We need to put time and effort into our spiritual relationship with God or we will reap a harvest of dead spirituality and a life full of sin and regret. Part of what makes it difficult to work at our relationship with God is that He isn’t physically present. Much of our relationship with God revolves around faith, faith in His existence, faith that He loves us and faith that He is working in our best interest.

 

What we need to understand is that God is constantly working at His relationship with us and we need to reciprocate. He gives us His Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Savior and part of the reason for this is so that His Spirit can comfort, guide and instruct us. God gives us His Word to tell us about Him. He gave His only Son as a sacrifice to make possible the relationship He desires to have with us. I would say God has spent much time and effort as well as sweat and blood to make a relationship work with us. Do we reciprocate by spending time with Him and working on our relationship with Him or do we put our love for Him on ice? Has the passion we had when we first became a Christian faded? Has our desire for His word died? Has the fervor for His Word and fellowship with other Christians passed away? Has our delight in God as our Savior and Lord wandered?

 

If our passion has diminished for our relationship with God you might say the spiritual fire in our life has died. God uses fire as a symbolic representation of the passion He desires to see in Christians.

 

In Matthew 3:11-12 John the Baptist spoke of the fire that Christ would baptize His followers with,

 

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

 

In Luke 12:49-50 Christ Himself speaks about an aspect of His ministry on earth as bringing fire to the earth. In this passage He shows desire that it would have already happened, showing the intense desire He had for the will of His Heavenly Father.

 

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

 

In Acts 2:3-4 we have the account of when the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples like a great rushing wind and flames of fire appeared over their heads validating that God had sent the Holy Spirit to anoint God’s church of believers.

 

“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

 

1 Thessalonians 5:19 gives us a dramatic command, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;”

   

Here we are told not to suffocate the Holy Spirit’s fire in our lives. In a sense God is telling us in this verse that never ever to hinder the Spirit’s work in our life. He does not want our passion and desire for Him to dwindle and fade away. He is telling us that we must avoid anything that would stifle the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

 

Hebrews 1:7 has an interesting comment as well. It describes how God perceives His servants on the earth. It is a reference to Psalms 104.

 

“In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.’”

 

God wants us burning flames of spiritual maturity so that we can sensitively minister to others and fervently share the gospel with others. The energy with which we live our faith is contagious. The lack of energy that we demonstrate in our Christian lives distracts from the gospel and paints a gloomy and dreary picture of what it is to be a Christian for those who do not know the Lord. A burning flame is a light to others. That is what we are called to be, a holy burning flame that speaks truth and deeply loves others.

 

In Mark 12:29-31 we are told what the most important law of God is, the most important task that would bring the greatest pleasure to our Heavenly Father.

 

“The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

 

Have you put your love for the Lord on ice? Has your spirituality cooled to the point that it feels like a cool winter breeze? Possibly you haven’t noticed that your flame of love for the Lord has dwindled. Maybe this is because you have failed to work at your relationship with Him.

 

If you find that you are not reading your Bible or praying as much or if you can’t get motivated to go to church and fellowship with other believers, why not make an effort to work on your relationship with your Lord and Savior.

 

Rekindle the flame of love and commitment you once had. Just like an ember from a fire can cool and blacken as it is separated from the fire, when you separate yourself from God and His fellowship of believers on the earth, you will become hard and cold spiritually. Once you seek to come closer to the Lord and His servants on the earth you will grow and once again burn brightly for Him.

 

Take some baby steps in God’s direction and you’ll find that He’s right there to help you take bigger and bigger steps. He wants so much for you to burn bright, not only for Him but for your spiritual well being. When we are close to our Lord, that is not only the safest place to be, it’s also the most joyful and pleasant place to be. Burning for God is motivating. It is energetic. It is exciting. It is magnificent!

 

Burn, burn, burn, it’s the only way to live in a close relationship with the Lord.

 

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you…” 2 Timothy 1:6