Come to the Fire, PO Box 480052, Kansas City, MO (2026)

09/04/2026

You Cannot Believe Too Much

Mary Fletcher (1739-1815) was the wife of John Fletcher, one of the most influential figures of early Methodism. Although Mary is little known today, she was regarded as a paragon of female spirituality during her lifetime.

She wrote in her journal that she had not been brought fully into the state of love that she desired. Three days later, she was thinking about her desire for this fullness of love, and a thought came to her mind. You wait and plead to be brought into another state: Abide in Jesus! That is the way to love.

Mary weighed it over in her mind and saw that it was true. She realized, “I have Jesus!” and so she had all she needed in Him. She thought of 1 Corinthians 1:30: “You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God; that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.”

Mary recognized that if she did not grow in love, it was “because I do not abide every moment in a quiet peaceable confidence, believing the Lord.”

Her husband encouraged her to believe God, saying, “You cannot expect or believe too much; for Christ is always ready to set His hand to every bill that faith draws.”

Jesus does for us, moment by moment, all we trust Him to do.

Thank You, Jesus, that when I abide in You, You provide all I need. I claim You as my wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you” (John 15:7).

September Memory Verse
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT).

09/03/2026

Praying With Authority
Sep 03, 2026
At our Citywide prayer, Amy said that because she had been a frail child, her Buddhist parents dedicated her to, not just one, but to two gods. When she was in her twenties, she became a Christian. One night as she lay in bed, she felt she was being choked. The next morning, she had black eyes and bruise marks on her arms as though she had been pinched repeatedly.

She told a Christian friend about it, and her friend replied, “The next time this happens, plead the blood of Jesus and praise the Lord.”

A month later, Amy felt as if a great evil power had swept over her. She said, “I remembered my friend’s advice, and called out ‘The blood of Jesus!’ Immediately, the evil power disappeared!”

Pleading the blood of Jesus seems to stop Satan in his tracks. Nothing is more precious to us than the blood of Christ but nothing is more terrifying to Satan. However, we often neglect to use Christ’s blood as our powerful weapon in spiritual warfare.

For the Israelites in Egypt, the blood over their doors was, their total protection against the death angel. The blood Jesus shed on the cross is still our protection from the enemy.

In Mighty Prevailing Prayer, Wesley Duewel wrote, “Plead the blood of Jesus. It is agony to Satan. He will want to flee from the sound of your prayer…Satan cannot fight the blood of Jesus and must flee from its reminder. It is your battle cry; it is your spiritual weapon. Use it to defeat Satan. Plead and praise the blood of Jesus, and drive Satan from the battlefield.”

The death of Jesus defeated Satan, and now the very mention of the blood of Jesus is torment to his ears and is our powerful weapon in prayer.

Thank You, Jesus, for shedding Your blood that gives me access into the Most Holy Place and that reminds Satan that He is defeated.

“We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19).

“He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross” (Col. 2:15).

September Memory Verse

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT).

09/01/2026

Give Thanks Before Reading

We ask God to bless the food for our bodies’ use before we begin eating. Isn’t it equally fitting to ask Him to bless His Word to our spirits before reading? When we come to a difficult passage instead of giving up or rushing to a commentary, we should lay that passage before God and ask Him to explain it to us, remembering His promise, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God” (James 1:5). This request for understanding pleases God. It was Solomon’s request when God offered Him his choice of all gifts, and God could not have been more pleased with Solomon’s request.

How long we pray before we begin reading the Word is not nearly as important as our hunger to receive a fresh word, our daily manna. Sometimes we can pray a prayer such as Samuel’s “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” Or we might use David’s words, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in your law.”

When we hunger and thirst and express our sincere desire for the Spirit to teach us, we are opening ourselves to receive true riches that only the Spirit can give.

I look forward to what You have to say to Me today, dear Jesus, as I read Your Word.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

September Memory Verse

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7 NLT).

08/31/2026

The Impossible-to-Answer Prayer

I saw an article titled “How Do You Pray for the Impossible?” I didn’t read the article but since seeing that headline, I’ve wondered what the impossible could be. God didn’t seem to accept the idea of the impossible.

In Genesis, God asked Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (18:14). In the Hebrew, a negative answer is implied.

Then Jeremiah prayed, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).

Gabriel assured Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

God had another way of stating His unlimited power when Moses was unable to comprehend how God could provide meat in the desert for 600,000 men for an entire month. “Is the LORD’s arm too short?”

Again in Isaiah, God said, “Was my arm too short to ransom you?” and “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save” (50:2; 59:1).

In Genesis 17:1, God speaks to 99-year-old Abraham, who has been promised a child by God. By this time, his body is “as good as dead” (see Romans 4:19-22). In the face of all his very understandable doubts, God reassures him by calling himself El Shaddai, which means Almighty God. It was God’s way of saying, “Don’t look at yourself, Abraham. Look at me. If I say you’re going to have a son, it’s going to happen. I am Almighty God.”

Thank You, our Father, for making a way where there seems to be no way.

“I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible” (Matthew 17:20).

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/28/2026

God’s Love Is Enough

Historian Westcott tells that when the apostle John was very old, he often had to be carried into their assembly. As they carried him, he always had only one thing to say: “Little children, love one another.”

Wearied by his constant repetition of these words, they asked him why he always said the same thing. “Because it is the Lord’s commandment, and if it only be fulfilled it is enough.”

It will be our efforts, inspired by love, that God uses. After Nancy had wandered from Christ's teaching, she frequently heard, “You should go to church,” and “You should find other friends....” The emphasis was always on her failures, and such talk irritated her. After she returned to God, I asked her what had brought her back. She replied, “I began to hear God say, ‘I love you.’”

Withholding love is not God’s way. A friend said that God told him to extend his hand in warm friendship to another. He objected, “But Lord, if I do, he’ll think I have confidence in him.”

God said, “Guard your spirit and let me take care of the other person.”

I heard a grandmother tell of her wayward granddaughter, whose family made it plain that they were displeased with her. Instead, the grandmother felt she was to show a tender spirit of love to the teen. God gave the grandmother the love He had for this girl, and she could genuinely love her. The more she loved the girl, the more she wanted to spend time with her grandmother. Jesus’ love has drawing power.

Love as Christ loved—an impossible command! Fortunately, we do not have to produce that kind of love on our own. We are called to simply be channels of His love, for “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Dear Jesus, help us to respond with Your Spirit of love when tempted to respond out of our own frustration or our limited wisdom.

August Memory Verse
“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/27/2026

To Love Is to Enjoy

According to Dr. Charles Carter, one aspect of divine love is that it enjoys what it loves. Other religions envision their gods as angry and petulant, always in need of appeasing. But we have a God who is gloriously happy, singing over His people with joy. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness…he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV). Think of what it would be like to hear God singing. Then imagine that He is singing over you! I like to go to sleep at night thinking that God is singing over me.
The angels sang at the creation, but God is singing over us! We are His delight because He loves us so much.

God’s desire to impart good to us is evident in what He created for us. John says in Revelation 4:11 that God’s purpose in creation was His own pleasure. But much of the thrill of making something is often because we love the one for whom we’re preparing it. A girl adds flowers and candles to the table for her fiancé because she loves him and enjoys pleasing him.

Could it be that God delights in His creation because He made it for us to enjoy, and it gives Him joy to please us?

Let’s enjoy God’s creation, seeing it as an expression of His love for us. We can look at the beautiful mountains, clouds, flowers, and animals, and say, “Thank You, Lord, for loving me so much You created all this for me to enjoy!”

Perhaps no one enjoyed the beauty God created more than Maltbie Davenport Babcock. As he left for his daily walks, Rev. Babcock would tell his wife, "I'm off to see my Father's world!" After his death, his wife published a poem he had written with these words, which is now a beloved hymn:

“This is my Father’s world,�and to my listening ears�all nature sings, and round me rings�the music of the spheres.�This is my Father’s world:�I rest me in the thought�of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;�his hand the wonders wrought.”

Thank You Father, for loving us so much You created all things for us to enjoy.

God “who richly provides everything for enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us” (1 John 4:16).

August Memory Verse
“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/26/2026

Make It a Love Affair

One of the secrets of those who have a passion for fellowship with God is that they’ve learned to make time for Him. Andrew Murray declares that the best and most glorious thing we have to do every day is to meet and worship God. “It is a great step in advance in the life of a Christian when he truly sees this and yields himself to consider fellowship with God every day as the chief end of his life.”

You can hardly keep a part unmarried people who are in love. They’ll find ways to be together. When Steve was in college he had only one hour a week he could be with his girlfriend. He declares that nothing kept him from that hour. A big test the next day, a list of things to do, a friend stopping to talk were either forgotten or ignored. He wanted to be with his girl more than anything else. Jesus wants a romance with us that is equally compelling.

An older lady occasionally writes to me, and I treasure her letters because her love for Jesus radiates through each page. Once she wrote, “I have felt the need of spending much time alone with God. No doubt Elijah spent much time ‘in the closet.’ That made him the man he was. We have devotions but we must also spend time in the presence of Jesus.”

I replied, “I’d love to know how you spend that time.”

She responded, “It started about a year ago when I saw all the decorating for Christmas. Many people ‘switch off Jesus’ when He is really the main One. That made me feel so bad that I purposed in my heart I was going to give Jesus some extra time. It was so very precious that I have kept it up all year and it has paid off. I really don’t pray for anything; I only ‘seek His face.’ That’s the secret!”

Dear Jesus, help us to be still in Your presence, so we can experience the inexpressible joy of gazing on Your beauty.

“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/25/2026

Was the Unfortunate Speaker

The first night of a women’s retreat, I arose to speak and dropped the pen I had in my hand. I knew I should leave it on the floor but bent to pick it up anyway. When I did, my pages of notes slid off the podium. This time there was no choice, so once again, the women saw me dive under the table to retrieve the notes. Fortunately, the notes landed in a stack, but by this time the women were fully awake, wondering just what might happen next to this unfortunate speaker.

The next day as I spoke, I still felt the sting of embarrassment at such an awkward start. Although I sensed the Holy Spirit was at work, I felt like a failure.

I finished speaking, and as I sat down, the Holy Spirit whispered, “You want to be thought of as a good speaker, don’t you?” His tone was gentle, not chiding, but as though He was tenderly revealing to me the source of my unrest.

“Would you be willing to continue speaking for Me if you always feel a failure when you finish?”

I pictured myself going to more retreats and feeling awkward, and I wanted to say, “No, please, Lord, I’d rather stay home.” But there was only one answer to give. During the concluding activities, I sat on the front row with tears rolling down my cheeks as my heart yielded to Him the role of defining what success would mean for me.

F***y Crosby summed up our life in Christ when she wrote, “Perfect submission, all is at rest.” Not having any will of our own except a longing for His will to be fulfilled—that is perfect submission and that is rest.

Rev. Payson wrote, “What a blessed thing to lose one’s will! Since I have lost my will I have found happiness!”

Thank You, Jesus, for a will that is content to rest in Your choices.

“My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me” (John 4:34)

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/24/2026

Will God Pay Our Bill?

Nearly two years after launching Women Alive! magazine in 1984, the bank account balance was insufficient to cover the printing bill. My husband and I were going out of town on Friday before the bill was due on the following Tuesday. After prayer, I was confident God would provide and fulfill His word in Isaiah: “Those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (49:23).

I went to the post office on Friday, thinking, God is probably going to have about 50 subscriptions in that box. Surely the money will be in the box today. God wouldn’t be late with paying His bills. Nevertheless, I prayed, “Dear Lord, I give You praise whether there are enough checks there to pay our bill or not, because I know that down the road I’ll be able to look back and say, ‘Your answer was perfect! You did provide.”

I went into the post office with high hopes. I opened the box and pulled out two ads, two changes of address, and two subscriptions. I walked back to the car, got in, and said aloud, “God, I’m disappointed.” As soon as I said that, the joy of the Lord overwhelmed me, removing every concern about that bill.

That evening, I remembered that Noreen, the circulation manager, had a checkbook, so I left the bill with her. One week later, we returned, and I was curious. Had the money come in? I phoned Noreen, who reported that on Tuesday, someone had come to her home and written a check for Women Alive! that totally covered what was needed!

Thank You, Father, that You fulfill Your promise that those who hope in You will not be disappointed.

God “is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]” (Eph. 3:20 Amp.)

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

08/21/2026

The Joy of Total Abandonment
Aletha Hinthorn

“I don’t think there’s ever been an article that I’ve written that has been more than 95 percent for the Lord. There’s always some bit of self in it,” a Christian writer confessed.

It’s that 5 percent of self that prevents us from having the joy that accompanies total abandonment to God. Frances Ridley Havergal wrote a consecration song with these words:

“Take my life, and let it be

Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.”

One verse has this prayer:

“Take my lips and let them be

Filled with messages from Thee;

Take my silver and my gold,

Not a mite would I withhold.”

Was Frances’s prayer sincere? She later wrote to a friend: “The Lord has shown me another little step, and, of course, I have taken it with extreme delight. ‘Take my silver and my gold,’ now means shipping off all my ornaments to the Church Missionary House (including a jewel cabinet that is really fit for a countess), where all will be accepted and disposed of for me...I don’t think I ever packed a box with such pleasure.”

Thank You, Lord, that You purify our hearts so we can joyfully offer You anything You ask without needing praise from others.

“He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering...be pleasant unto the Lord” (Malachi 3:3, 4).

August Memory Verse

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy”(Psalm 147:11).

Come to the Fire

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