There will be a day when our works will be judged. Did we attempt to assist God in the building of His kingdom based on our desires, our opinions, our timetables? Or did we cash it all in, burn every bridge, and ask God to to let His will be done on earth...
...through us.
Here on earth we humans have those seasons that are just grey. We lack FIRE and zeal. We wonder...
AM I LUKEWARM?
The reality is that sometimes the work of God is repetitive and mundane. This doesn't mean we don't love God. It's just the state of living in this flesh. By faith we remain constant, we stir ourselves up, and then a day comes when life is exciting again.
HOWEVER..
...if we are lacking FIRE because we are lacking FUEL that's another story.
In Corinthians Paul states that we must be careful how we build on the foundation of Jesus. Whatever is built upon Him with gold, silver, and precious stones will endure the test of fire and the builder will receive a reward. But the works of those who build with wood, hay, and stubble will burn up and there will be NO reward.
What does it mean to build with wood, hay, and stubble?
NOTHING will survive the test of FIRE that was not the will of God. So everything that is willfulness, rebellion, stubbornness, presumption, will burn. Selfish motives, vainglory, everything built from insecurity, pride, or out of fear will perish.
EVERY fleshly, worldly thing will be nothing but a pile of...
...ASHES.
However there is good news!
These things that will burn in heaven are the very things that we can use as fuel for FIRE right here on EARTH!!!
Take your will, your plans, your wants (even your needs), every HOPE and every DREAM, your goals, and YES your desire to be liked, loved, and admired AND...
BURN IT.
Decide, right now, that nothing that God did not give you or tell you to pursue is worth having. Make an irrevocable decision that it's ALL God or NOTHING at all. Arrange your schedule, your house, your work, your decisions, your thoughts, your recreation, your children, your prayers all around nothing but God and...
...HIS WILL.
I tell you a truth. There will be such a FIRE in you that no circumstance, no fickle emotion, no man, and no devil in hell can put it out.
But it takes a decision.
Wood, hay, and stubble is readily accessible in abundance because we have a flesh that inherently wants to live for itself and not God. One way or another it's going to burn. Here on earth where the light of it will shine the way for others and the warmth of it will comfort the weak and the lost? Or in heaven where you will suffer the loss of your reward.
You choose.
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Cor 3: 12-15
Picture by Chelsea Johnston
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