This Is Living: 5 Days of Inspiration to Live Your FaithExemplo

GOD’S FIRE PLAN

I recently had an opportunity to visit the Mariposa Grove of Sequoia trees in California. The grove had been closed for three years while they did enhancements to protect the trees and improve the visitor experience. Being able to see the world’s largest trees in person was simply amazing. Redwoods may be taller, but there is no larger tree than a Sequoia. A vehicle can easily be driven through the base of one of these trees.

The most unusual feature of the trees is the black burn marks on the base of them. Every tree has these marks, and for good reason. Fire is what helps the trees to grow. When fire burns the underbrush, the Sequoias grow. They actually thrive on the fire scars. The tree can live even if it is burned. The Sequoia can withstand fire because its bark is twenty-one inches thick. Only if the fire reaches the top of the tree will the tree die.

Even more remarkable is how new Sequoias are born. The only way there can be a new Sequoia is if a Sequoia tree’s cone is opened and the seeds come out. There are up to 9,100 tiny seeds in just one cone, but the cone will only open with tremendous heat. It takes a fire to produce enough heat to cause the cone to open and the seeds to be released.

A Sequoia takes eight hundred years to reach full growth, and they live for up to two thousand years. Some of the trees I saw were around when Jesus walked the earth. However, they only grow and reach their full potential if there is fire. Most forests are destroyed by fire, but fire is what makes the Sequoias grow to be the biggest trees in the world.

Christ followers are like the Sequoia. We need fire to help us grow. Zechariah 13:9 (niv) tells us, This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. Fire purifies whatever it touches. We need the fire of God to cleanse away anything in our lives that keeps us from being totally committed to Jesus. God’s fire can burn away whatever is not pleasing to Him.

No one wants to be in the furnace, but the fire is needed for our growth. God wants us to grow to full maturity. He wants us to be huge spiritually. He wants us to have a long life of ministry for Him. Let the fire of God burn so hot that it makes you like gold— shining beautifully for God.