“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.”
The Flame
This burning bush names something worth noticing precisely, burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed, genuine, actual burning, not merely apparent or symbolic, alongside genuine, actual preservation, the bush itself not destroyed by the very fire genuinely, actively burning within and around it.
This is worth holding as a needed picture of what sustainable, long-term spiritual fire actually looks like, genuine, real burning, not diminished intensity pretending to be sustainability, but real fire, and yet, somehow, not consuming, not producing the burnout this whole book’s second movement honestly named as a genuine risk.
Notice this bush’s fire is specifically the angel of the LORD, God’s own presence, suggesting the sustainability this image describes is not achieved through the bush’s own natural capacity to withstand fire, but through the specific nature of this particular fire, God’s own presence, burning genuinely, without consuming what it burns within.
Whatever fear of burnout has made you hesitant to pursue genuine, sustained fire, consider today this burning bush’s own testimony, real fire, genuinely burning, and yet, because it is specifically God’s own presence, not consuming what it burns within, worth trusting as the actual, available pattern for your own sustained devotion.
Tend the Flame
- Notice any fear of burnout that has made you hesitant to pursue genuine, sustained fire.
- Trust today that God’s own presence, specifically, produces fire that burns without consuming.
- Consider what distinguishes genuinely sustainable fire from mere diminished intensity.
Prayer
Lord, let your own presence burn in me, genuinely, without consuming me, the way the bush burned and was not consumed. Let this be my own pattern for sustained devotion. Amen.
Carry this today
God’s own presence produces fire that genuinely burns without consuming what it burns within.