Devotion//Caitlin Bawden
“Fan into Flame”
Good morning! My
name is Caitlin, I’m from Australia and this morning I want to tell you a
little bit about the country that I come from. I’m going to tell you about
fire, so hopefully, it makes us a feel a little warmer here in Austria!
The weather back in Australia during the Christmas
time hit temperatures over 45 degrees Celsius. It’s summer there at the moment, while we are
here enjoying winter. Summer is such a great time for me back home. I love going to the beach, surfing, having
BBQ’s and just enjoying the time outside, but it is also a scary time for
Australian’s because of the danger and high risk of fires. The summer of 2015/2016 was a particularly bad
year for bush fires with the country losing 408 houses, 500 other buildings and
9 lives due to wildfires. Just in this past month just out side the city of
Adelaide, where I come from, there was a fire that took almost 200 volunteer
fire fighters to control, along with 3 water bomber planes. This is why summer although it can be great,
is a very hard time for my family and the rest of our country.
Now before European people came and invaded Australia,
the Original Custodians (owners) of the land, the Aboriginal Peoples would use
fire as a way of clearing the land so that new things could grow. There are certain plant seeds that need fire
to open and give them the ability to grow. Hence, fire can also be a really great thing.
In the Bible, in 2 Timothy 1:6, the writer, Paul,
tells us this; “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.” If we think now about fire. If there is anything remotely close, it can
catch alight. Back home, every time
summer comes around, we, as a family have to clear around our whole house to
make sure that if a fire were to come through the valley, our house wouldn’t
have more risk of catching on fire and burning down.
So like how the Aboriginal Peoples would use fire to
encourage new growth, I think that sometimes things in our life need to be
cleared to allow for our own growth in life. Also, if we are, like Paul said, fanning into
flame the gifts that God has given us, then others may catch our flame and be
encouraged to use their gifts also for God’s glory.
It says also in 1 Corinthians 12: 17-20; “If the whole
body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were
an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the
body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If there were all one
part, where would the body be? As it is,
there are many parts, but one body.” This shows us that God has created us all
unique for a unique purpose. No one else
can be a better me than I can be and no one can be a better you than you can
be. He wants us to use our gifts and fan
them into flame so that others may catch God’s light and love and be encouraged
to do the same.
I want to read again from 2 Timothy 1:6, which says
this; “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.”.
Let’s pray! Heavenly
Father, thank you for creating us all uniquely and for giving us each a unique
purpose and set of gifts to use for your glory while we are here on this earth.
I pray that each person can be
encouraged to “fan into flame” the gifts that you have given them and that
their light catches others too. I thank
you for every person here, and we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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