Banking the Coals for a Fire in Your Prayer Life

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this review or post, but all opinions are our own.

I have a great group of ladies in my life. I recommend every woman get a small group of spiritually powerful women to encourage and inspire them. We are all so different. We have different goals and life backdrops going on but when we all show up at the same time on a given Friday morning to pray and share our hearts, I feel like it is something out of a scene from an Avengers movie.

There is a lot of power at that table. I’m not sure what God has in store for us but I am sure that it is big.

This week we were talking about prayer. Not my favorite subject. In fact, I put the book for our most current study off because, I have a lousy prayer life. My prayers sound like, “God, go do your thing, because I have no idea. Amen.”

This might not be the most effectual way to pray, so I am glad that we are reading Priscilla Shirer’s Fervent. We are just beginning but already God is waking me up with prayers at 2am. Which, right now I find annoying, but only because I have been getting up early with my hubby. I know that this is an area that God wants me to grow so I am digging in.

During our study, the first question was, “Have you lost your passion?” It took us the rest of our allotted time to get back around to the book, but we shared a lot along the way.

We talked about passion and what that term really means. Some of us are in places of passion right now. Fervently scrambling to get every spare hour to work on what God has set before us. It seems so big it eclipses everything else. Some of us are in a latent phase, resting, waiting for further instructions and the birth of what God has placed on our hearts. A few of us are nursing the work God birthed in us. Trusting Him to sustain us along the way.

The question arrises, which of us has this passion?

My wise friend weighed about passion. She has a tricky-clicky wood stove. She has learned the value of keeping it banked up all winter long. Sometimes, as it happens on odd winter days, it is unusually warm and she has been tempted to spare the woodpile. Through trial and error she has learned that if she neglects to feed the fire all day, she will spend the evening in her upstairs bedroom freezing cold.  No matter how bright the day the fire needs fed, all winter long. She has learned to listen to the sounds of the stove. It will let her know when she needs to tend to it. It hisses if it needs more water for the boiler, and she knows the ticking sound of a fire winding down. If she simply pays attention, the stove tells her everything she needs to know about the fire. If she ignores it, she gets cold.

The same can be said for our passion in life. Passion is not gauged by how bright a fire can burn, a fire burning too hot can warp the stove and make it less effective. Passion is the steadily banked flame that erupts at the moment that it is needed. Passion is the stove well tended. It gives warmth to the furthest reaches of the house. Our passion should be well nurtured in every stage.

When life’s days run warm and there seems little need for our fervor, we bank the flames of our passion and wait for the right time to fan the flame. We never let the fire in our heart go out until it has served its purpose.

Our passions wane and our interest might rise and fall but the Lord is steadfast in His purpose for us and He will sustain the work He has chosen if we will but listen. Our task is to grow familiar with the ticks and groaning.

To know when to push and when to wait is the challenge, but God is faithful to lead us into our passion at the exact moment that He has purposed from the very beginning.

I am glad to know that He is faithful to lead me. He is faithful to bring about my passion as well as my peace.

I am looking forward to Phase 2 of Fervent as we read the next chapter and share what the Lord is teaching us.

Passion is the stove well tended. It gives warmth to the furthest reaches of the house.

Have you read Fervent? What lasting take away did you receive?