DAY 5 – A Life Focused by Vision

We all wish that we could eat well for just one day and then have a healthy body forever, or exercise just one time and have our fitness taken care of permanently. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way! Most of the time, lasting ‘fruit’ calls for ongoing daily discipline.

In the same way, the fire of our life needs to be fed every day in order to keep it burning. It is not enough to have just one powerful encounter with God; We must pursue His Presence daily! It is not enough to devour the Bible once; His Word should be like manna to us EVERY morning. It is not enough to surrender our lives at the altar in a moment of passion; We must lay down our fleshly desires day by day, moment by moment.

The Levitical priests in the Old Testament also had to clear the ashes from the fire daily (Lev 6:11) to prevent the fire from going out. We too must continually deal with the things that seek to quench our fire like disappointment, discouragement and offence. We must bring these before God in prayer and allow for Him to speak courage, hope, faith, healing and forgiveness into our hearts. In doing so, we clear away the ashes that threaten to smother the flame in our heart.

Maybe you laid your life down before God once as a ‘living sacrifice’, but you’ve jumped off the altar in recent times. Why don’t you surrender yourself to Him afresh today and ask Him to set your life ablaze for His glory? Or perhaps despair or heartache have piled up as ashes on the altar of your life. He can help you clear them away today so that you are truly free. It could be that there is someone you need to forgive or some offence you need to let go of. Do so bravely, knowing that your Father wants only the best for you.

In short, do whatever you need to do to keep your fire burning strong.

And then do it all over again tomorrow.