"Cold Ember"

"... but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God."  1 Samuel 30:6b

If you build a fire and remove one of the embers and set it over to the side, what is going to happen to it?  It will begin to cool off and eventually get cold and all you have is a burnt piece of wood. 

We are like that ember.  If we are not careful, and move too far from the fire that keeps us burning, we too will eventually get cold.  It is the plan of the enemy of our soul to pull us away from the fire that keeps us burning.  What is that fire?  It is the Lord Himself.  In the Bible He is described as a "consuming fire".  He spoke to Moses from a burning bush that was on fire but did not burn up.  On the day of Pentecost Holy Spirit descended on those who were assembled in the Upper Room in the appearance of "tongues of fire". 

How do we get from the fire to the place where we become cold spiritually?  Through distractions, though the cares of this life, through busyness and so on.  All of these cause us to neglect our great salvation.  We don't have time to pray.  We are too buy to read our Bibles, etc. 

When we first start getting away from the Lord, like an ember, we are still warm.  Warm enough to be losing our relationship with the Lord and become religious.  What we are doing now-- spiritually speaking-- is becoming ritual, routine, and habit. 

Before an ember gets completely cold, it starts cooling off.  Before we get completely cold we become "lukewarm".  This is a terribly dangerous place to be!  There is a warning attached to being lukewarm-- God will spew you out of His mouth. 

How do we get back "hot" again?  How do we get back into that relationship, nearness, and presence of the Lord that makes us and keeps us hot?  We do the same thing David did-- encouraged himself in the Lord.  We encourage ourselves in the LORD.  We remember His goodness to us.  We remember who He is.  We remember what He has done for us.  We remember how He saved us.  We start reading His Word-- it is Him written on paper.  We start setting time aside to pray-- getting into His presence. We begin to open our mouths and give Him praise and glory (even if we don't feel like it.  Remember we are encouraging ourselves back into the fire).

When David encouraged himself in the Lord, and went after regaining what was taken from him, it was restored to him.  When we encourage ourselves in the Lord and pursue Him again, the same thing that happened to David will happen to us.  All that we lost will be restored to us.  We will have the joy of our salvation restored.  Our relationship with the Father will be restored. We will become a "hot ember" again. 

Have a great day.  Are you an ember that is hot?  Or one that has gotten cold?