| “For our God is a consuming fire.” – Hebrews 12:29 |
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| OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE Throughout our Bibles, we find NUMEROUS descriptions of God. Most likely you can easily rattle off many of these descriptive words. Finish the sentence the LORD IS…. (what is the first to come to mind?) I suspect you immediately thought The Lord is my SHEPHERD. You may have also thought the LORD IS LOVE. To finish the sentence God is you most likely thought HOLY! God is also gracious and good and great and merciful and kind and righteous and true, etc. As we stated to start we find numerous descriptions of God As we consider descriptions Hebrews 12:29 gives one we probably are not quick to place on our list, especially if we are doing the A to Z method. Words starting with C to describe God almost always start with COMPASSIONATE and COMFORTER and COUNSELOR, even CREATOR but I don’t think many of us think CONSUMING fire. And even if you want to say the real description is FIRE I don’t think many of us think FIRE when we give a list of words beginning with F. FAITHFUL and FORGIVING comes quickly to mind but not FIRE. Yet in one short verse, we have a very distinct description of God as He is a CONSUMING FIRE. Three questions come to mind as I look at this distinct description. First, what does it mean that God is a consuming fire? Two, why is it mentioned here? Three, how does this description of God apply to my life? To answer the first question is first to know that this description comes from Deuteronomy 4:24 which says, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” Understanding God as a CONSUMING FIRE means He does not tolerate sinful disobedience and will deal with it severely. As sin was abominable to God in the OT it is abominable to Him in the NT. The believer is being warned here to not think that because of GRACE God takes a lower view of our sins. The Apostle Paul dealt with this in Romans as he asked should we sin, that grace may abound? He answered himself with GOD FORBID!!! From Hebrews 12:28 we are to serve God with profound reverence and unwavering fidelity. Returning to the sinful lifestyle that we were saved out of is a betrayal to the SAVIOR. We are called to live holy lives. And in case we forget OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE. While it is correct to think of the fire of God as judgment, we need to be thinking of God’s fire here as for purifying. As we get closer to a new year it might be a good prayer to ask God to purify your soul. Let us serve Him with a profound reverence that He is due and an unwavering devotion! Verse to DATE the Word on December 29 (12/29) is Hebrews 12:29. It says, “For our God is a consuming fire.” Continue Strong with a reverence for God And remember to DATE THE WORD |