Fire (Part 4): Purification
This week we're exploring the prayer "Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire!" Each day we'll reflect on what it means for God to fill us with divine fire, and why we would bless Him for it.
"Blessed be God who filled my soul with fire!"
Fire is consuming. It drives out other things. It purifies.
This might be the most challenging aspect of the divine fire—and the most necessary.
When God fills our soul with fire, it doesn't just add something good to our lives. It burns away what doesn't belong. The divine fire consumes our selfishness, our pride, our fear, our attachments to things that ultimately don't matter.
This is why purification can feel uncomfortable. Fire doesn't just gently warm—it burns. It destroys whatever feeds it, transforming it into energy and light.
But here's what's beautiful about divine fire: it only consumes what needs to go. It burns away the dross while refining the gold. It destroys sin while strengthening virtue. It eliminates what's false while revealing what's true.
The process isn't always pleasant, but the result is worth it. What emerges from the fire is purer, stronger, more beautiful than what went in.
This is so true for the divine fire the Lord gives us. When we allow God's love to burn within us, it drives out jealousy and replaces it with joy for others. It consumes bitterness and creates space for forgiveness. It burns through fear and reveals courage we didn't know we had.
We bless God for this purifying fire because we know that what it removes was never truly serving us anyway. And what it reveals—our true self, made in His image—is more beautiful than we ever imagined.