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Key Bible Verse: Be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:58). Bonus Reading:James 1:2-8, 25

To build a fire, I crumple several sheets of newspaper into "bouquets," wadded at the bottom and flared at the top. Upon this I layer strips of tinder. I strike a long, wooden match, reach into the stove, and touch the paper in several spots. The flames spread to the balled paper, which burns long enough to ignite the tinder. As soon as it's burning well, I lay on a few sticks of kindling. When these are flaming, the stove is ready for the first full-size hunks of wood that will warm me all evening. The first flash of match and paper is bright and impressive, but the reason I build the fire is to enjoy the sustained heat of burning logs and slow-glowing coals.

A woman I know wonders if she's still growing spiritually, because the original God-kindled blaze of eternal life that illuminated the darkness of her life so suddenly, seldom flames up as dramatically now as then.

But what's true for the woodstove is true for the heart: just because the initial spiritual combustion may have been more spectacular than at present doesn't mean the fire isn't growing. The heartfire's greatest effectiveness occurs as it burns into consistency.

—Donald Whitney in Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

My Response: At what stage is my "heartfire"?

Thought to Apply: Slow and steady wins the race. —Aesop (ancient writer of fables, in "The Hare and the Tortoise")

Adapted from Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (NavPress, 2001) by permission.

Copyright © 2004 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Sovereign Lord, keep me from envying the accomplishments of others. Instead, make me grateful for and content with the gifts You've entrusted to me.

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