Stir up the gift

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. - 2 Timothy 1v6

Though we don’t do it very often I love good fire in the fireplace. We like a mixture of wood and turf for our fire. It gives a lovely ambiance to a cold dark winter’s night. If I don’t tend to the fire (because no one else will) it grows cold and eventually goes out.

The words that Paul uses to Timothy draw that image to mind. There are times in all of our lives and ministries where the embers grow cold. There is still there some warmth in there, but is we grow cold and the ashes over the world cover over that warmth.

So what do we do when the fire grows cold? Do we just sit back and let it go out? No, we do what Paul told Timothy to do. We ‘stir up’ that gift. We get up off our, uh seats, and stir that fire back up! We don’t let it go dead. We stir up the coals, blow on the embers, add some more kindling, and get the fire blazing again.

We can’t afford to let the fires go cold – stoke them, stir them, get them burning again. Get that blazing fire back!