Igniting fire for life in Christ: 2 Timothy 1

Over the last year there has been this pile of brush down near the softball field on our church’s property that has kept expanding. Broken branches, dead, bushes, and who knows what else has been thrown there. This past Friday night we decided to have the biggest bonfire in Michigan and set it ablaze. If you know me well, I’m not exactly the camping type so starting a fire for me usually includes lighter fluid. So I left the job of lighting it to someone else. In no time the pile was lighting up the entire area. It is amazing to watch just one little flame engulf an area and multiply its heat.

In 2 Timothy 1 Paul uses language that we can appreciate if we have ever seen someone who knows what they are doing when they start a fire. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift” or “fan into flame the gift” that God had given him. I remember watching this happen around the campfire. Just as it looked like the fire was dying, someone begins to blow or fan the ashes or embers. At first it looks like it is going to put the fire out, and then a flame bursts out and the fire begins to grow and then spread. All the fire needed was to have some fresh oxygen to grow.

This is the message Paul is giving Timothy. Do you ever feel stagnant spiritually? You begin to lack desire, or you can tell that there is something missing. Your zeal, your prayer time, your trust in God, even things like reading the Bible and going to a worship service become chores. You are not alone, it happens to all of us. It happened to Timothy and even Paul.

Spiritual apathy is a casual complacency that sneaks in and eventually has the effect of a bucket of water thrown on burning logs – the spiritual fire is dying. What then? What do we do? Paul gives us the answer – he says go back and stir up the embers; fan the flame. He reminds that God has given us good gifts. Gifts that are intended to make us blaze for His glory.
Primarily, Paul is telling Timothy to fan the spiritual gift God had given him. Use it, develop it. Stop allowing you and your gifts to sit on the shelf. Get busy, get creative, and stop making excuses.  And then, in a secondary way, he reminds him he has been given a new spirit. One that moves with power, love, and sound thinking. A spirit that is not hunkering down in fear or fading like a dying flame. Stir it up! Trust again. Pray for power. Get in and dig into the book of promise and hope. Remove the cold, damp thoughts, actions and habits that hinder that fire from blazing. Instead of nurturing doubt and selfishness begin again to walk down the path of building your fire for fulfilling the purpose for which God has saved and gifted you. Today is the day, stir up your gift, fan the flame of the potential God has placed in you.