Daily PresenceSample

Two months into living by myself in the United States, I had one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. I thought it would be an incredible idea to grab a piece of paper, write down all my sorrows, and offer them to the Lord as a burnt offering by literally placing the paper inside a lit candle while I worshiped to a song called “Living With A Fire”. Nothing could’ve been more spiritual than this song and this moment. A couple of minutes later, the piece of paper, though on fire, wasn’t really breaking down. I thought it was so cool. I compared it to the burning bush of Moses. I was simply waiting for the audible voice of God to tell me what a good faithful servant I was. I was mesmerized. When the fire was about a meter high and slightly getting out of control I slowly started falling out of cloud 9. That’s when my bright self had another great idea, “I’ll just throw some water at it”. So I did! That’s when the candle exploded, smoke filled my entire apartment, and the fire alarm went off uncontrollably. Extremely ashamed of my newbie mistake, I started to clean believing the firefighters were going to show up any minute.

In our scripture today we see Jephthah being kicked out of the Israelite camp and told that he was never a part of them. That is until they start fighting the Ammonites and realize they need him. Jephthah graciously chooses to go and help them, under the condition that he will be the commander over them even after he has put off the fire.

I believe this paints the perfect picture of how we can treat God as a firefighter God. Every single time we kick God out of our lives, our decisions, our healing, etc., it all explodes and turns to smoke. When we realize the mess we’re in, we try to cover it up by ourselves before turning to God. Yet when we do, God has graciously been there all along. Our hope is that God doesn’t become a firefighter in our lives, but rather the Lord of our lives. This is the perfect moment to let go of our shame and turn to Him.

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."