Is God not real to you?
Does God seem more like a lofty concept than a real person you can walk with through life?
Do you want to see God?
Meet Him in the fire.
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’
– Daniel 3:24-25
Fire brings God’s shape into view when, in humility, we desire Him more than we desire to escape the flames of adversity of this life through safety and comfort elsewhere.
When we abide in His love through obedience, stand firm on the hope of His appearing, and do not abandon the eternal for the temporary, He appears.
I don’t like hardship, but it is often in the midst of difficulty, at the edge of our ability—where we don’t know what, why, when, or how—that causes us to question and cry out in faith, and there He meets us.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
– James 1:2-5
It is there, in the fire, where it gets real, where His presence is often most keenly felt, where He grants us wisdom and a grace to go on that we did not previously have. What is more real than that?
It is in the fire that God is a very real comfort for me. It’s more than head knowledge; it’s a presence like being braced by an arm to keep me from falling.
In my own words, I echo the words of the Psalmist, David, in Psalm 23:4,
“As I walk through the seemingly existential threats of this life,
You protect me from the death of separation from You,
You keep me in The Way of life.
‘You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me'”
This is the God I’ve met—and the One you can meet too—in the fire.