Their hearts are like an oven as they approach their plotting. Their anger smolders all night, in the morning it burns like a flaming fire. Hosea 7:6 

The keeper of the fire must stoke the coals to keep them alive. The embers need to be hot, ready for the job of baking the morning bread. There will be no fire without someone fiddling with the coals. The message is clear. No person commits a sin without forethought. 

Every sin begins as a seed. For it to grow from a thought to an external action, the idea must reside on the back burner of our minds. We will nurture it. It will be turned over and over in our heads, the place we think we can indulge safely.  But, the heat of the coals is being preserved and fire will not be far away. 

This concept is the very one Paul talked about in I Corinthians regarding ‘burning lust.’ If we nurture lust in our thought life, it is already a lighted fuse. 

How can we be protected from fire?  By taking every thought captive. Our minds are a battlefield. Not far away from us, Satan’s minions have pitched their tent. He strategizes, trying to discern what ideas he can pitch to us that will be so attractive and so familiar to our DNA that we believe they originated with us. Once embraced, they take on a life of their own. Satan loves to be our companion as we tend the coals. 

Ah, but there’s another fire I much prefer tending. Deep inside my spirit, the Spirit of God invites me to stoke the fires of righteousness. How much better for me to discern His thoughts, choose to think on the things He suggests, and ask Him to stir the embers. The fire of a consecrated thought life is sure to burst into flames.  

Thank You for passion, for consuming me. Your tent is my home. Amen