How much do you value your faith, your relationship with God, and the promise of eternal life with Christ that has been made to the faithful? In my view, there are two extremes–on one end is the person who uses his or her faith simply as a piece of demographic information about themselves, and on the other end is the person much like the Pharisee we read about in Luke 18, full of self-righteousness and thanking God that he is not like the lowly sinners. We know that both of these are wrong. We must value our faith with humility and gratitude, but it must be more than just a label that we claim in social circles, because “our God is a consuming fire.” While not making our faith about how “holy” and righteous we are, our relationship with God should affect EVERY part of our lives. Instead of maintaining our faith as a small, petite candlelight within us that we only bring out on Sundays, our faith should set our whole being ablaze with gratitude, reverence, awe, and worship. If we cultivate our faith to do this and give God permission to enter every aspect of our lives, it will change the way we think, talk, act, and interact with others. Reflect on this today and ask God to set your heart ablaze for Him. Your renewed spirit of love, hope, and joy just might spark a flame in the hearts around you as well. +