Stay warm spiritually

I’ve been reading in 2nd Timothy and the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, a younger-middle aged pastor to throw another log on the fire. Actually, he tells him to, “fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2nd Timothy 1:6). Why does this Rock Star of a Christian tell his protege to “fire up?” Because if we are honest our spiritual flame starts to go out if we are not intentional about keeping it going.

Later Paul tells Timothy to “share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2:3). Then he says, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits (distractions), since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2:4).

All of that sounds really good on Sunday morning about 11:25 a.m. but what about on Monday morning when I’m trying to figure out which pair of new running shoes I need to buy. It’s simple things like this that can get us distracted and keep us from “seeking first the Kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).

We trade cars every two years and it’s time so I have been obsessed with finding a new car online, driving to Austin, blah, blah, blah. Buying a new car has been a huge distraction and has the potential to lower the temperature of my spiritual fire.

What about on Thursday night when the Blonde tells me the dripping pipe under the sink is dripping more than it typically drips?

Ha! These are the fires we are putting out all week, and my point is it can be hard to remember that we are supposed to be building a spiritual fire and not necessarily spending all of our time putting out the everyday life fires (civilian pursuits). Does that make sense?

What’s the answer? Well, first of all, God’s not mad at us. He knows we need new running shoes, dependable vehicles and that kitchen plumbing gets old and needs repaired. But I used a word earlier that is critical if we are going to stay revived in our walk with Jesus. Do you see the word “intentional” at the end of the first paragraph?

All of us should have a spiritual rhythm to our life and we have to protect that rhythm. What I mean is when do you intentionally spend time alone with Jesus? Jennifer gets up early while this tired, old, cynical preacher is still REM sleeping. She reads her B ible, p rays a nd b asically has coffee with Jesus. What about you? When do you have coffee with Jesus?

I have a friend who is a famous television preacher and if I told you his name you would probably know him. My friend tells the story of getting up early once to spend time with the Lord, but he says he found out the Lord wasn’t awake yet. What he meant was getting up early like the Blonde is not best for everyone but each of us needs to be intentional or the stress of new running shoes and dripping pipes will bring us down and we will forget to keep the main thing the main thing.

So go ahead, throw some wood on the fire and stay warm spiritually.

He told me to tell you that.