We need to learn the secret of the burning heart. Jesus appears to us, the fires are kindled, and we have wonderful visions. Then normal life resumes, and the flame dies down. The burning heart is a heart that can go through anything, but first we must learn how to keep the flame alive. The dull, bald, dreary, commonplace day, with its commonplace duties and people, kills the burning heart—unless we learn the secret of abiding in Jesus.
If we are abiding in Jesus, keeping him at the forefront of our minds and letting him guide all our decisions, nothing we meet with will be able to kill the flame inside us. But if we lose sight of the Lord, the emotion he kindled when we were close to him will fade. It isn’t just drudgery and duty that can make this happen; it’s our unwillingness to let the emotion have its way.
Much of our distress as Christians is caused not by sin but by ignorance of our own natures. For instance, to know if we should allow a certain emotion to have its way with us, all we need to do is think about the outcome of the emotion. If we push the emotion to its logical conclusion and find that it’s something God would condemn, we shouldn’t follow it. But if it’s an emotion kindled by the Spirit and we don’t allow it to have its way, it will drop us to a lower level. The higher the emotion, the deeper the degradation if the emotion is not worked out in the way God wants.
When the Spirit kindles an emotion inside you and your heart begins to burn, let it burn. Do everything you can to help the emotion along. Don’t build up barriers against it or make excuses about why you can’t follow it, however inconvenient or illogical it may seem. Abide in Jesus, and keep the flame alive.
