…the fire will test what kind of work each has done. If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. If someoneʼs work is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:13-15 NET_FL)
Flames leapt ten meters carrying grass, trees, and bush animals into gray billows. The wildfire raced toward the mission complex in Zimbabwe and every able-bodied man beat at the flames with a leafy branch. I’d never battled fire with a branch but I couldn’t stand-by and watch, so I carried my bough into a burning field.
“Stop, brother,” an African grabbed my arm.
The hungry blaze jumped and the trail I almost used was engulfed in a roar of orange flames. My ignorance was nearly my undoing.
Will my spiritual ignorance be my undoing when I get to paradise? I will be saved by the grace of Jesus but will my personality lie in charred ruins because it wasn’t remade beforehand? After walking with the Lord for years, I still harbor jealousy, fear, and apathy. I don’t want to show up at the marriage feast of the Lamb as a gray-haired spiritual baby with no eternal gifts to present.
The prescription for fireproof maturity is simple. That which I construct with humble, godly love will be unharmed by the flames. Whatever I build with self-interest will incinerate.
We are under attack by a practiced enemy who blocks our attempts to build honorably. But that’s why life is a test. It’s all a grand plan to see if, in spite of the obstacles, our character will be fireproof.
Prayer: Create in me, O God, a heart that will survive the fire.