Keep the Fire Burning

“A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.” (Leviticus 6:13)

Last winter in Ohio, we had a tremendous snowstorm that lasted for four days. There was a power outage and subsequently, we had no running water. The temperature outside was zero or below, and inside it was getting pretty cold, too. We had to keep the house warm so that the pipes would not freeze, later crack, and leave us with a terrible and expensive mess to clean up.

We had to keep our fireplaces burning for four days – one in the living room and the other in the bedroom. My husband and I each took one room to watch over and “keep the fire burning”. I would crawl out of the bed every hour to throw another log onto the fire. Usually, by around 4:00 AM, I would sleep through and not get up and restore the fire. My husband would come in and say, “Your fire went out.” Then start it back up again.

In our walk with God, how convenient would it be if He would pop in now and then and say, “Hey, your fire is going out”, and then give us a new touch of His power and love and strength to get up and get going!

“You have made me as strong as an ox, I have been anointed with fresh oil.” (Psalms 92:10)

If we can only recognize our state, where we are in our relationship with God, He can and will always come through to throw on a fresh log to keep us revived and renewed in Him.

What does it mean to be fresh? It means to be energized, invigorated, original, restored with energy, purified, and new.

I want that! God, revive me again! That is what the psalmist says in Psalm 85, verses 4 and 6: “Restore us, O God … revive us again.”

Could it be that exactly where God has us today, in the exact situation and circumstance of our present life… that is where He wants to revive us?

We often think that He must move us to do His work, but often the log is in the fire where we dwell.

Psalms 138:7 says:

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me.”

It was the fire on the altar that was never to go out. When we come to that altar, that place of surrender to God in no matter what we are going through, or where we may be at the moment… He will be there to meet us and to throw another log onto the fire.

He is the Source of our revival – of our energy and our strength to be fresh and new and full of vitality.