Fire in My Bones

During my travels last week Jase, Sean and I got to have a prayer meeting with my great uncle Billy Ford. I call him Uncle Buddy. He served as a Nazarene pastor for over forty-one years. He is retired today and is coping with life without his soul mate, whom the Lord called home over a year ago, and life in full time ministry.

We spent some time visiting but the main purpose of our visit was to pray together. It surprised me when he got up from his chair and knelt at his coffee table. I thought that might be difficult for him by the time all four us finished praying. Boy was I wrong.

He prayed with all the passion of a man still in his prime. I will never forget him praying about the “fire shut up in his bones” and wanting an outlet to preach and let the fire out. When we had all finished praying I readied myself to help him to his feet. No need. He pushed off his hands from the table and sprang to his feet spryly. I could see the fire not only in his bones but also in his eyes. He loves God and stands ready to answer God’s call.

I chuckled to myself. He still has the fire of the Holy Spirit shut up in his bones. He is a passionate man of God. O, how I pray that as I grow older the fire will only burn brighter and hotter in me. I pray the fire will set up deep in my bones as I walk with Lord and the hair turns grey on my head. I am already there.

My joints ache more than they used to. From time to time I have trouble reading in the dark. I am losing hair in some places and growing hair in other places I do not wish to see it. Despite all of it, I still love God and burn in my heart to serve Him. I find myself asking the Lord to let me do more for Him continually.

I recognize I do not have the strength I did in my youth. I do not have the youthful zeal I did years ago. I am not the same man. Though my outward body is perishing I want my inner soul to be flaming hot with new fire for God. I know this comes from consistent time in the word and time in the scriptures.

When my uncle prayed the Bible poured out of his mouth. Over four decades of preaching, loving, studying, teaching, and memorizing flowed from his soul and rolled of his tongue. That fire in his bones proved contagious to this middle aged preacher.

I do not want to coast into retirement without the fire of God shut up in my bones. I do not want to retire. I have always planned that if I should retire from serving God as a pastor I want to begin traveling full time again through No Compromise Ministries. I think retirement is overrated. I pray for more fire even in those days.

It saddens me as I have met and ministered to many senior adults that the fire seems to cool and for some even been extinguished. I have always thought those who have known the Lord the longest should be the most passionate for Him and the ones who had the most fire burning in their hearts. I can say that certainly typifies my uncle.

What makes the difference? I am convinced it comes down to hungering for more of God and thirsting for more Him. This morning I read [Ps 42:1-2]. I want my soul to crave and thirst to know God more. I want to have daily encounters with the living God. I long to pant after more communion with the Lord regardless of how old I am. I know that may become increasingly difficult.

How do you keep desiring and craving more of God into your twilight years? Hudson Taylor read the Bible cover to cover once a year for forty straight years. George Mueller read the Bible through two hundred times. Is it any wonder they loved and served God into the last years of their lives? Taylor died in his seventies still serving God in China and Mueller in his nineties after spending a decade traveling around the world preaching. Both still had fire shut up in their bones.

I am in my forties. I have asked God for a long life to serve Him. I still desire more time with Him and to hear His voice over all the other voices in this age. I want to live out the rest of my days as a man ablaze for God. I want others to catch fire from the fire God is shutting up in my bones as I caught some fire from Uncle Buddy. I hope to pass it along to others through this blog and through preaching. May fire ever be shut up in our bones. “But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name; then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.’” [Jer 20:9]