Fan The Flame

2 Tim. 1:3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Paul, Timothy's spiritual father is reminding him of a few things that I think are worth remembering ourselves.

Timothy was a passionate young man-"remember your tears". Timothy had a tender heart and a sincere faith. Paul was encouraged by Timothy's walk, even though Timothy was younger than he was. There was a reminder of Timothy's spiritual heritage; this can not be taken too lightly. We need more parents and grandparents who pray for their kids and grand kids.

Paul's encouragement to Timothy was really that he fan the flame of his spiritual walk, that he not live in fear or be timid, that he would do the work of the ministry with passion.

Jesus, in Revelation 3:15 says "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth". He tells us what He thinks about people who do ministry in a half-hearted way; He spits them out of His mouth. Jesus would rather that we not do ministry than to do it lukewarm. This should make each one of us desire to live in a white hot, passionately pursuing Christ-like way. Are we living in such a way that others will want to know why we are SO excited about life, or would they say that they are not interested in being a Christian if that is what Christians act like?

When we are excited about something we want to share it. If we are not interested in talking about spiritual things we should carefully look at our lives and see if we are of the faith. Humbly look at your life and evaluate whether you are hungering and thirsting for the Word and drawing others towards Christ. Is your passion contagious? What better thing could someone say about us than "They must really love Jesus; look how they live, talk and act"?

I confess I fall so short of where I should be, but my desire and aim is to be more like Christ each and every day and to encourage others to be complete in Christ. I have to fight sin every minute of every day, but that is what we are called to do; not to be perfect but to be being sanctified.

God has chosen us to be His "interns" here and as long as we are here He has some work for us to do. The work may be difficult, it may be building bridges, but whatever it is He has something in mind and He isn't leaving us here to not be using our spiritual giftedness to glorify Him and promote Kingdom living.