“He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.” –Exodus 3:2 {ESV}
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” –2 Corinthians 4:16 {ESV}
It’s been a while since I lost a night of sleep due to a mind at unrest. There have been seasons in my pastoral ministry when I would toss and turn for hours, frustrated and fretful, eventually having to rise from my bed in mercy so that Amy could enjoy what I was forfeiting. I’m not a proponent of inordinate amounts of sleep anyway, but a man has his limits and I need a handful of hours to be effective upon the path which I’ve been placed. It looks like today is not going to be one of those days as my mind was extra busy while my body sought its slumber. The mind won out and I’ve been awake for a bit, thinking on things beyond my power and reaping the harvest of a restless night.
Sometimes we know what it is like to be the bush that burns but is not consumed. That signaling shrub of Moses was an anomaly in that it was full of power which generated both light and heat and, according to natural law, should have been destroyed. According to the purpose of God, however, it became something which indicated that He was purposefully at work in an unprecedented way. Moses watched the fire burn, heard the crackle of the bush, smelled the smoke as it rose from dry wood…and was amazed that there was only light and heat in the absence of destruction. There was a divine barrier against what could have and should have happened to the bush. God ordained it to burn, but not to smolder in defeat. It is my belief that God will ordain you and me to be like that bush from time to time. He will send circumstances which will turn the heat up in our lives which will, accordingly, manifest light from our lives. As we continue in less than desirable conditions, He will forbid our being consumed. He will not permit us to burn up, even though we have been put to the flame. We may lose sleep. There might be a forfeiture of our sense of calm. We may lose some of the tangibles in life and go through a frightening and growing awareness of all that we are not. In essence, we will inch perilously close to the proverbial end of our rope and feel like we are grasping into the dark of night for something to hold on to.
Our flailing hand will then find itself grasped by the hand of perfect omnipotence and covenant love.
Paul told the Corinthians that we should not lose heart at the awareness that there is something going on with us that feels like death. He described it as the perishing of the outer man and had to remind us that this is always accompanied by the simultaneous renewing of the inner man. Jesus taught something similar in John 12:24 when he stated,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
It is in this dying that God produces the manifestation of fruit that is linked to the second birth. All that our inner nature desires can only come as the old perishes and the new proceeds forth. The bush, indeed, must burn if there is going to be the manifesting of light. Many of us are learning that the dying and burning is not as desirable as the light and the fruit. We have to investigate ourselves and determine if we really want the process to continue. Is the pain worth it? Do we esteem the troubled heart valuable enough to cooperate with until it leads to the ordained end? Will we extinguish the flame which burns us or resurrect the outer man who seems less demanding to live with? Well, if I belonged to myself then the answer would be quite easy: pour water on the flame, pamper and protect the outer man…look for the path of least resistance.
But I don’t belong to me anymore. You don’t belong to you. As we recognize that the flames and the fruit are the things that evidence the glory of God in us, to us and around us…the question of whether or not we proceed is already answered. The bush must continue to burn and the death of the outer man must not be interrupted. The resulting light will be bright and the final fruit will be sweet. May we all remember today that this is the path and process appointed for the saints of God. Let us walk it in faithfulness and joy.