When you first get a fire going, it can take a significant amount of effort to get it really going. There are times where you think you have something going, but then it starts dying again. The flame gets bigger then smaller, bigger then maybe it turns back into embers.
God does not waiver, but our faith in Him can because we are human. Humans are fickle beings. Our faith waivers and can be dampened by distractions of this world, such as social media, tv shows, games, and to-do lists. Part of the reason these things can be a dampener of faith is it distracts us from the things of God, from spending time with Him.
We rush out of bed in the morning to start on our endless to-do lists. Sure, we may pick up a devotional every morning and go to church every Sunday, but is that spending quality time with our Heavenly Father?
The distractions we deal with every single day can turn an on-fire-for-God Christian into one whose fire of faith has turned into just embers.
In yoga, we understand there is power in the breath through our pranayama practice. The phrase “send breath” is not uncommon. Just like we can send breath to different parts of our bodies, we can speak breath prayers to breathe life onto smoldering embers of faith.
Life gets hard sometimes and when that happens, our faith can be shaken. Occasionally, it can be shaken to the core, but we can rest in the fact God Almighty, our Heavenly Father, never waivers or fails us.
We may think so, but the Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
There may be times where we need to take away the dampeners to our faith, in order to grow closer to God, to seek His heart, and find out what His will is for our lives. He doesn’t yell at us. He talks to us in a still small voice. An example of this can be found in 1 Kings 19.
‘And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord .” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.’
1 Kings 19:11-12
Consistency in time with God (real-time with Him, not “I have to do this,” time with Him), and consistency in prayer and fellowship with other believers help to reignite that fire.
To the outsider, time with God may seem like nothing’s getting done. However, it can be relaxing and almost meditative to sit by the fire, listening to it crackle, so can time with Him become. Notice I said “become” not “is”. It may take a considerable amount of work/effort on your part to spend time with Him, growing your intimacy with Him.
Most people know that marriage takes work and time spent with your spouse to build a good relationship; it is the same with our relationship with Yahweh. We need to spend time with Him.
I have a weekly prayer group meeting I enjoy. One night we didn’t have it. At the time, I was feeling so discouraged about things going on (or rather lack thereof) in my life. I wanted to cry. I got my Bible, placed my hand on it, and asked the Lord what He wanted to say to me.
He gave me Matthew 6:33. I decided to read the entire passage of Matthew 6:25-34 to get a better understanding of what I needed to hear. Now, I had read this scripture many times before, but this time was different.
It hit me in a new way and it hit me hard. In a seated forward fold, I wept. He wanted more of me. He wanted more time with His child. He said He would take care of me. It said so right there in that very Scripture. I even got onto TikTok later that night and one individual I follow mentioned that Scripture.
You see, it’s easy to trust Him when life is going well. It can be hard to during tough times. And during those times, sometimes that faith fire looks like tears saying “God I don’t know what to do or where to go, but I am trying to trust You.”
We need to be silent for the Lord to speak to us (see Psalm 46:10). We cannot treat God like a vending machine, ask for what we want, and then leave. Prayer needs to be a two-way conversation: praying and then being still to see what our Father has to bring to the mind. Reading Scripture and mulling it over in our heads, helps us to hear and know Him.
Let me ask you something: are there people in your life whose embers of faith have all but gone out? If so, how can you help them? Could you pray for them?
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