smoldering

We have a wood burning stove.
Nothing is quite as cozy as heat from a wood fire.

This year our wood is not as seasoned as it should be.
It takes a while to get a fire started.

We have to keep the chamber filled with layers.
Doing this allows the heat to dry out the next layer of wood so it will burn.

Sometimes, when I come down in the morning and open the doors, the fire looks like it is dead.

When I first started using the wood burner I would be discouraged thinking I would have to start a new fire.
But experience has taught me an important lesson-
a pile of ashes and nothing more than charred wood that looks like it doesn't have a chance and needs to be cleaned out and disposed of may begin to smolder. Given the right conditions, a smoldering piece of wood will burst into flames.

Sometimes my life resembles that pile of ash and charred wood.

I am where I am supposed to be and I have a job to do, but it is like my oxygen supply has been cut off and I cannot "catch" and burn. To the untrained eye I look "dead", a hopeless cause.

Experience has taught me the truth of Matthew 12:20:
"A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory."

Sometimes I burn bright, sometimes I only smolder.

When I am "smoldering" God will not snuff me out.
He takes what appears to be a hopeless cause and trims away what is dead.
Then He breathes hope, oxygen as it were, into my life.
He remains faithful and just.
Any victory I experience is due to His work in me.