the fire of praise ...

i worked outside for a good part of the day, taking trees that had been cleared and throwing them into a huge brush fire.


it’s funny because this morning in the car, some of us were reading proverbs 27, and i was particularly struck by verse 21:

fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.

there is no doubt that we feel the fire of life’s hardships - the pain of loss, the challenge of trusting when we don’t understand. but praise?

yes. and even more so. God wants to know how we will handle the fire of being in the limelight. will we keep it for ourselves or will we give it back to Him?

in acts 14, paul and barnabas heal a man with crippled feet. when the people saw what had happened, they believed that “these men are gods in human form!” and tried offering sacrifices to them. “but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, ‘friends, why are you doing this? we are merely human beings—just like you! we have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God.’” (vv. 14 - 15)

that’s not to say that we should take on false humility. it’s okay to recognize and stand confidently in the gifts that we’ve been given. but when they are recognized by others, we need to make sure that we don’t ever let it go to our heads, forgetting for a second why we have them.

pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud. (proverbs 16:18-19)

you see, when we are prideful, we are taking something that does not belong to us, just like plunder. i don’t know about you, but i’d much rather have what God has given me than what i can take from the world.

that brush fire got pretty darn hot today. i didn’t want to stand close to it for any longer than i absolutely had to. i don’t want to stand near the fire of the trials that God allows any longer than i have to, either. but our “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. and WHEN [not if] you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 corinthians 10:13) the faster we take that way out, the faster we get to step away from the fire.

really, praise is like the fire. will we be captivated by the flames, only to be burned? or will we acknowledge their beauty, but quickly turn our backs on the danger and return our focus to the source of all fire, heat & light? in the end, God’s praise is the only kind that matters. i choose the originator, not the imitator.