The Great Value of God’s Prescribed Fires

Do you know that God uses prescribed fires in our lives? I’ve been thinking about the biblical concept of refinement, and how that applies to us in this year of many afflictions. I pray this devotion will encourage you and teach you something new.

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What is Prescribed Fire?

Here in Missouri, my conservation department instructs property owners on how to conduct prescribed fires. Yes, these fires are prescribed, just like doctors prescribe medications for us when we are sick. When you manage property like the woods I live in, occasional prescribed fires help refine the land.

Prescribed fires restore balance to the ecosystem. They destroy invasive plants that compete with the native plants for resources. These fires limit the spread of fast-growing shrubs and trees so the slower-growing hardwoods have more equal competition for sunlight. Prescribed fires also renew the forest floor, where seeds of some plants actually generate better after a fire sweeps through.

In the western United States, wildfires are common. They accomplish some of these same purposes. But here in Missouri, we are blessed to not suffer from frequent wildfires. Sometimes fires break out from lightning storms, but not often enough to manage our spaces well. Fires must be prescribed here to restore the balance that natural rhythms cannot accomplish.

Prescribed fires are unlike wildfires because they are carefully planned. Conservation agents pay special attention to the weather, prohibiting prescribed fires if the ground is too dry or the wind is too strong. The fires are planned at certain times of prairie conservation efforts. The conservation department offers regular training classes to ensure good use of the fires.

Also, the prescribed burns affect different areas of the acreage in different ways. Some areas burn quickly in a few hours, and some burn slowly over several days. This burn diversity allows for different insect, animal and plant species to move back into the land at different rates, which reduces the competition. It also increases the diversity in the food chain. New life thrives after prescribed fires.

The Great Value of Prescribed Fires for You

God also uses prescribed “fires” on his people. These fires are intended to refine us, and are mentioned several times throughout the Bible. One of the best verses to demonstrate this concept is Isaiah 48:10 NIV:

See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

A silversmith uses fire to burn off impurities and produce a beautiful end product. In this verse, God is speaking through Isaiah to the wayward Israelites. God’s people had turned their backs on him to worship foreign gods. After many warnings, God decided to put his beloved people through the “furnace of affliction” to test their hearts.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like the events of 2020 have been a prescribed fire on my life. They have tested my patience, my trust, my faith, my peace. This furnace of affliction has helped me see my priorities in altogether different ways. The process of refinement has been painful, but it’s been for my good. I’m starting to see new blooms that would not otherwise have been possible. I’m learning to rejoice in the newness of life that is happening now and will continue blooming in the future once this season is over.

Let’s consider how the prescribed fires in this season have great value for us:

1. They restore balance. Whatever you were taking for granted before, surely you have a greater appreciation for now. I feel more balanced in my appreciation for church, nature, freedom to travel, time with family, and visits with friends.

2. They accomplish what normal rhythms cannot. I needed this shakeup called quarantine to help me reevaluate my busyness, my materialism, and my attitudes. I could have learned those lessons without quarantine, but they were much more vivid and intense during it.

3. They are carefully planned and limited by God. Whether we realize it or not, God was, is now, and will be in control over every detail of 2020. He has planned out everything that has happened so far and what remains to be seen. He is controlling both the intensity and time span of the prescribed fires in each of our lives. Just long enough to help us learn the lessons he wants us to learn.

4. They accomplish different purposes in each area of our lives. Some areas of my life needed a major overhaul during the quarantine. Others, a simple redirection. The changes burned hotter and brighter in certain areas, and slower and quieter in others. All to make me more like Christ in my thoughts, words and actions.

I want to be a devoted, fruitful servant in God’s kingdom, and the prescribed fires of 2020 are helping me move closer toward that goal. I pray that you will see the value in the specific fires God has prescribed for you in this season. May you know that he is in perfect control of the fire of affliction in your life now. May you pass this test of faith with the strength Jesus will provide you through the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
Thank you for prescribed fires in my life.
It is hard for me to understand their value
when I am walking through the furnace of affliction.
Yet you test me because you wish to purify me
and make me into something far more beautiful.
I trust that you have carefully planned
the intensity and time span of my prescribed fire.
I believe you will accomplish purposes through this fire
that I cannot otherwise attain.
I pray you will restore balance to my life
after this fire has passed through and cleansed me.
I thank you in advance for the new growth
that will flourish in my heart after the flames die out.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.

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