Fan Into Flame Your Gift

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
2nd Timothy 1:6-7

Whenever Christmas approaches, my kids get really excited. The mailers come in and the kids immediately grab them and start making their “wish lists.” They spend hours staring at the different toys and combing through the magazine looking at items they want to receive as a gift. Excitement fills their heart as they daydream about receiving the one thing they want the most. 

On Christmas morning, the kids open these gifts and the joy in the house has reached its highest level of the season. There is wrapping paper everywhere and the kids are running around the house playing with the gifts they just received. 

If you were to fast forward a few weeks though, a sad thing happens. The gifts they longed for, the gifts they were so excited to receive, now lay buried under a pile of clothes in their room or lost at the bottom of their closet somewhere. It’s sad to think a gift that was so precious to them just a few weeks earlier, now sits neglected. But, occasionally, that gift will find its way back into the hands of one of them and that excitement will swell up inside of them again. It’s an interesting cycle to watch. 

When I was an early Christian, I read Paul’s encouragement in 1st Corinthians 14 that we should desire the spiritual gifts. It created a similar excitement in me. I wanted to receive everything God had for me. I prayed diligently that God would give me these gifts. I spent hours studying these gifts and trying to discern which gifts God would give me.  

He answered those prayers. He gave me several spiritual gifts and I used them for his glory. It was a wonderful time. I remember the joy I felt praying over people and watching God move in a spectacular way. It was like Christmas. 

Sadly though, over the years, I treated my gifts the same way the kids treated theirs. I neglected them. They sat unused, gathering dust. Occasionally one of them would pop into my life and I would be reinvigorated with joy because of it, but on the whole, I was neglecting the gift that God had given me, the one I had prayed so diligently for. 

I can only imagine that Timothy went through the same thing. God had given him some gifts as well and due to the pressures of life, he had started to neglect his gift. Paul writes to him to encourage him. He wants Timothy to dig through the closet of his soul and find the gift that God had put into his life and he wants him to fan it into a flame. 

We go camping quite a bit and when the campfire dies in the night as we sleep, it doesn’t die all the way. If you use your fire stick, you can poke around in the ashes and you will find embers that are still burning. They aren’t producing much heat and there is very little smoke coming from them, but there is still a little fire in them. If you can get some oxygen to them, by blowing on them or fanning them, you can get your fire started again. 

This is what God wants each and every one of us to do. Examine the embers in your heart. What gifts has He given you? In what ways has He given you unique tools to do His will that you have let die off due to the pressures of life? Find those things, and fan them into a flame again. Find the gift He has given to you and dust it off and start to use it again. Pray diligently again for Him to spark a fire in your heart. Stop neglecting the very precious gift that He gave you! He wants you to catch fire again. He wants you to burn for Him! The gift He has given you is meant to be a blessing to you and to others. Do not let it get buried by the stress and anxieties of life or stamped out by fear. God has a plan for you and He wants you to use the gifts He has given you to bless others. 

Prayer - Father, help me to fan into flame the gift you have given me. I know that you gave me this gift for my own benefit and to bless others. Help me to use that gift for your glory. Fill me with the fire of the Holy Spirit to go out and do your work. In Jesus name, amen.