Fire

Creosote

The story of the burning bush is another fascinating story. Though I have heard it a million plus one times before, this last time I heard it, the Lord revived my senses so I was able to gather something fresh from it.

Most of the attention goes to Moses, but I want to focus on the bush itself. I was looking it up and there are varying ideas of what kind of bush it was in the desert, anything from a rubus sanctus, an acacia, or a creosote. Nonetheless, based on how I perceived what the bush would have looked like for it to have the significance it had, the creosote looks the most plausible, but again I am not certain. But, for my sake, let’s just say it is. ☺

creosoteb2This bush I doubt was a large or full as some other types suggest. I believed it was short-standing and not so heavy, and though it had its own beauty, there was nothing marvelous, extraordinary, or exceptional about it, just like the creosote. But like the donkey, that is the shrub that God decided to use to initiate His mightily awesome plan. The bush was being all that is was created to be, a bush, no more no less. I can only imagine that being in the desert, it didn’t have much company, but still it blossomed in the desert and God had a plan for it.

In the same way, we may be so far from others and feel alone; we may feel small or insignificant, or useless, like the shrub, yet God still has a marvelous plan for your life. Even if you are on the backside of the desert, know that God still sees you and knows exactly where you are. He is growing you and maturing you and allowing you to bud before He makes His move. The point again is just be who God created you to be and trust that He designed and structured and placed you perfectly to set up His plan, so that you can be used by Him to usher in and show His power and glory.

The not so warm and fuzzy part, the bush was set on fire. It is how we respond to the fires in our life that God’s glory is revealed. Will we refuse it? Will we try our best to blow it out? Will be go jump in the lake for a momentary fix? Or will we let God have his way? I began to think that if we decide to fight the fire, the more we do, the more likely we are to get burned. Think of the Hebrew boys, they accepted the fire rather than try to escape it, and as a result, they walked out without the smell, a burn, or a singed neck hair.

The other thought is that, faithfully being who God has you to be and remaining where He has you to be no matter how undesirable it may be, sooner or later the Lord will set you ablaze from within, and you will be a world changing phenom that just shifts the atmosphere whenever you walk into the room; you will be a sure pit fireball.

I don’t know when that burning bush experience will be for you, that time when the Lord will use you in such ways that you can never comprehend or make any type of rational sense. Like the creosote shrub, there is nothing to extraordinary about me or you that should grab people’s attention, let alone God’s, but He sees the beauty in us, and the moment He sets us on fire, that’s when the rest of the world will see it in us through His son, Jesus.

I encourage you to be you for a purpose, never doubting the beauty and power locked inside of you. Know whose you are so that you may also know who you are, being confident in whatever situation you find yourself in, but like that creosote, let yourself grow and blossom in the midst, and in due time God will reveal Himself and speak through you, and those in bondage will be set free.

Fire

FireJeremiah was such a complex person with a lot of emotion, which is why he is known as “The Weeping Prophet.” Still, his story reflects many of ours today. He was called at a young age and when God first called him, he was apprehensive and had excuses as to why he wasn’t able to do what God had purposed for him to do. Many of us are like that. We feel that the task God has for us is too big and we are too small, but that’s the beauty of it. If what He has called you to do doesn’t scare you or keep you on your knees, something is a little off. God, as when He called Jeremiah, wants you to go past your own limits in thinking, strength, and ability and do what takes you out of your comfort zone to prove His power and show His glory.

Jeremiah’s calling was hard and very uncomfortable; he was called to tell the people of Israel about themselves and the doom of the nations. I mean seriously, who wants to go around telling people daunting words from God and not only that but God give you a warning that the people will fight against you and pretty much hate you? Like whoa!

Maybe you feel that way. Maybe what God has chosen you to do and what it will take to do it or get there frightens the mess out of you. Maybe what He purposed you to do, if you know it yet completely takes you way out of your comfort zone. Maybe who He has called you to be is the you that you have hidden or covered to fit in. As God told Jeremiah, don’t be afraid, for you will overcome and He will protect you and rescue and deliver you from whatever you will face. What the Lord has put inside of you is what this world needs to see and or hear, even if they don’t know it or want or accept it. Do what God has purposed you to do. Be who he destined you to be. There is a purpose.

As time goes on, you realize that people are even crazier than what you thought or expected and it’s much harder to complete the task than you could’ve ever envisioned, and as we do, like Jeremiah, we begin to complain and fuss because things aren’t going as smoothly as we like or it’s just getting too much to handle, and you want to give up just like he did and curse the day you were born. At some point he gave up and decided not to fulfill his purpose any longer. It was then that he realized that he couldn’t quit. He couldn’t give up, no matter how much he was hurt, mocked, insulted and reproached, and no matter how much he felt like God had set him up. He had a word; he had a duty that God had given him to do. The moment he stepped out from it, he felt a fire welling up in him that was more intense than what he experienced from other people.

Whatever it is that you have been destined to do, to be, it will get difficult, people will get on your very last nerve seemingly more that ever, people will look at you funny and talk about you, and the Devil will come at you with everything he’s got. But what you have the power to become, why do you think the Devil is trying to stop you? Why do you think God placed you where you are and called you out? They both see something in you and all you have, are, and will face is in either to prepare for greater or hinder you from greater. Know the difference. Either way God has promised to be with you, so like He told Jeremiah, get yourself ready and stand up, for he has already covered you, so no one has power over you or the ability to destroy any part of you unless you allow them to.

Whatever it is that you may be trying to hold in, don’t. It will burn you until you unleash it. So I encourage you, whatever it is that you are called, chosen, destined, and purposed to do, no matter how terrifying or uncomfortable it appears to be or already is, don’t give up. The world desperately needs you, even if they think they don’t. You have Jesus. So yeah, they need you, because they need Him. You work is not in vain, because it will hurt you and them more if you didn’t than if you do. You have been blessed with a burden.