Good morning everyone and welcome back to another morning with the masters where we devote ourselves to the Lord daily with you. Good morning, you guys. We are picking up with day four of our the names of God devotion, the Bible app.

There's a link to that in the description of the podcast if you guys want to follow along with us. And as always, I'm going to read the scripture and into where he's going to pick up with the

Devo. Let's do it. Let me just preface by saying this one's going to be absolute fire. Oh, there he is. Okay. I'm sure you'll catch on in a moment. The versus Hebrews 12 verse 28 and says this.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. And so worship God acceptably with reverence and all for our God is a consuming fire.

The devotional is titled, Esh Okla, consuming fire. Have you ever witnessed the destruction wrought by a forest fire? It consumes everything in its path, jumping quickly over roads and bridges and even rivers.

Now imagine a consuming fire that is larger than the universe. And you'll begin to get a small glimpse of the power of God.

We should have respect for God's overwhelming power, but we also need to remember that he is a highly personal God who cares deeply for us.

And because of this, he is a God who deserves our praise and worship at all times. We shouldn't take him lightly, but we also shouldn't be afraid to cry out to him and enter into relationship with him.

God's magnitude can be hard to reckon with as can his attention to every detail of our lives.

How can so mighty a being be so concerned with the seemingly trivialities of our lives?

It's because he cares about us so deeply. And that's why we need to allow his consuming fire to place strong in our hearts.

He is Esh Okla, a consuming fire, but a fire filled with grace and patience and compassion.

He draws us to him with the goal of us making him first in our hearts, minds and souls. And in the midst of the fire, he cultivates love in our hearts.

Oh snap, this is good. It actually made me think of the second verse that's in this devotional, which is Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 24, and it says this,

for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. And it makes me think, and I would need to research this a bit more to make sure I'm not like getting it as off-base, so definitely receive this with a grain of salt.

But whenever I re-consuming fire, and you think about the havoc that happens during a force fire, where it just rages and it moves and it consumes, it takes more and it takes more and it takes more.

And it makes me realize that God wants more and more of my heart and more and more of my attention and more and more of my love.

And so when it comes to things that are good things, having a good job, having a healthy relationship, having these things that are good and productive for society, and the flourishment of humankind, I think that's the word flourishing, the flourishing of humankind, but we can't put those above God.

It's God's place at the throne of our heart, not those things. And since he is Esh Okla, the consuming fire, he wants to consume those things to make sure that it's him who sits on the throne of our heart.

Wow, that's so good. And it's like I think about all the things he wants to burn off of our life too, things that aren't healthy, things that are toxic, things that don't glorify him.

And as he consumes us with his love and grace and mercy and kindness and strength and peace and all the things that we don't deserve, he's also burning off so many things that don't glorify him.

But this doesn't happen unless we're in his presence. This doesn't happen if we're not in his word.

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