consumed
Dear saint,
Your life is not to be consumed by those doing so in the name of Christ and the church. You are not a consumable good. You are not disposable.
The Lord alone is a consuming fire. He alone is worthy of being entirely consumed by. Even in doing so, we find new life and resurrection greater than anything we give up. We find ourselves poured out and yet continually filled to overflowing.
God commanded a long time ago that if you started a fire and it consumed something of value, that you needed to make restitution. Whether we intended to consume something of value that wasn’t ours or not, when we do… we should pause, see the damage and lean in to restore. That wasn’t ours to take.
We are to spend our lives, not have them taken from us.
In the Bible, enemies are consumed, fools are consumed, and those who bite and devour one another are consumed. These are warnings to us, examples to not follow, not examples we should follow.
I really only see that the Lord consumes for good and has the right to do so. And even He, when He consumes, it’s for glory and goodness. And He spares. He gives. He protects. He fills.
Godly authority fills, it doesn’t take.
So friend, if you’re feeling consumed by others or a system and you haven’t set yourself up as an enemy of God or a fool or aren’t doing your fair share of consuming by biting and devouring others, may I just ask you… is that really God’s heart for you?
May our lives be consumed by One and One alone. He alone is worthy. And in worshipping the worthy One, we know our worth. Our value. Whose we are. And no one else has the right to consume us.