The Center of the Fire
By Cyndi Kay Green
Every growing Christian will walk through more than one fire while serving God. This is not something we can prevent or even avoid; it just comes because Satan will use everything he can to destroy those who serve God. Jesus even tells us this in John 10:10, “The thief’s purpose is to kill and steal and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” (NLT)
Fires usually start small and grow. The campfire is a good example of a small fire becoming big. When we start our campfire, we start with a little flame, add a little more wood and it becomes bigger as we add more and more wood. Sometimes it seems that way for us as we face the fires of Satan. It just feels like someone (usually Satan) is piling wood on us and the flames just get bigger and bigger. Things like kids and school, car problems, leaky roof, or problems at work are all easy to handle one at a time, but all together it just seems overwhelming. Then add something like marriage or financial problems, and it feels like everything is just going up in smoke. We try to take a deep breath and regroup our self, but we still feel like the fire is hot and we are stuck in the middle of the wood pile.
You feel like the fire has encircled you. When you go one way, there’s flame, so you turn to go another and there’s a flame, you feel so trapped. Kind of like the game we played as a kid when we were in the middle and our friends circled around us holding hands. No matter where we turn, the fires of Satan still seek to destroy us or steal something that is precious to us.
We need to adjust our thinking so that instead of trying to put it out alone, we turn to God. In Isaiah 43:2 he tells us, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” This doesn’t say that if you are perfect you will be safe from the fires. Nor does it say that you won’t face any of these calamities. It says that WHEN you go through them, the protection is already there. You won’t have to wait on God to show up when you are in the fire, He already knows about it and He already has a plan to snuff the flames. IF you just seek Him and trust Him.
Recently while experiencing one of these fires in my own life, I began to think about all this and how trapped I was feeling. It seemed as there was nowhere to turn, it was then that I realized I could look up to the hills from where my help will come. Looking up from the center of the fire I see the one direction that flames did not stand in my way, the peaceful space between me and my Father in Heaven. God was there just waiting for me to look up and reach for him. He was waiting for me to say “God I can’t put this fire out by myself.” I was facing cancer for a second time; finances were tough and the youngest son was being attacked with life-threatening food allergies. There just didn’t seem to be any way out of not getting engulfed in this inferno. Like a huge skyscraper fully consumed by a fire with no way for any thing to put it out, my life seemed to be going up in flames. But oh, how precious is our God when he knows we are aching and calling out to Him for relief. That was when I began to see God put out the flames one by one, providing the way of escape. As I began to follow God and trust him to lead me out of the fire, the blessings started coming and the flames started decreasing. Even though I felt hot I was not consumed by the fire that the enemy wanted to use to oppress my spirit and trust in God. Was it easy? No. But it was a choice that I had to make. I had to choose to trust God in all things. I read Psalms nightly because that is where I knew I could find strength and peace. “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.” Psalms 56:3 (NLT). It was all I knew. Sure, doctors prescribed chemo and radiation for me. The allergist prescribed allergy meds for the little one. We learned to read labels and finances were still wobbly, but the peace of God that surrounded me as I began to fight for me and my son was so overwhelming. It was a peace that only a daddy could give a little girl. Just as one of the most famous scriptures about peace says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard our hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT).
As women of God, we face these fires every day. We face them because we are designed to nurture our family. We want to love and care for our children and that comes with fire. One day we see little Susie happy and excited to be in school and then the next thing we know, she is distant and fighting the act of having to attend school. This fire could be huge and consuming to a little girl, so as momma, we don the fire-fighting gear and we go to the One who holds the extinguisher. Your husband once held a great position at work, but after a company takeover and new management, he is demoted because he stands for his Christian morals and values. As a wife, we don the fire-fighting gear once again as we go to God to help us battle this fire that threatens to engulf our soulmate. These are just a couple of examples of how we face fires of the enemy. But remember, God is loving God and He does not want to see us burned by these fires. To us they seem huge, to God they are but a flame on matchhead.
So, as you stand in the middle of your fire, trust that God is there waiting for you to look up from the center of it and ask him to snuff the flames. He is faithful to keep his promises and he has promised in his word to be there when you call upon him, to rescue you when you feel there is nowhere left to turn. God is in the middle of everything.
Be Blessed and Be a Blessing
