Raking Fire To Our Chest

In the broadest scope of the illustration mentioned at Proverbs 6:27, 28, this is talking about desires and choices we make that can be harmful to our moral and spiritual nature. This is especially so in reference to subjecting our minds and hearts to sexual enticements.

What is the fire we rake in when we start thinking sexual thoughts? Paul answers that by stating it is the fire of being “inflamed with passion.” The "burning of the garment" is the damaged relationship with our Creator, now having damaged our "adornment" as a clean person. (Now before I continue, I want to be frank in acknowledging that many people feel morals and self-control are old and out-dated notions. If you are one of those, there is no need to read further. This was written for those that recognize the value of morals.) So how does a person become “inflamed with passion”?

Most young men work this out by resorting to masturbation. Many young men even resort to fornication. For those who aspire to higher standards and want to please God, how does a person quelch these flames of passion? To have a flame, you need oxygen, fuel and heat. In symbolic terms, the oxygen and fuel are closely related. They both constitute whatever it is that feeds our passion. But for the sake of splitting it out, lets say the fuel is like material. So the fuel is what we subject and expose our senses to--the media, either in printed or digital form. The air that hits that material is our imagination. Finally, the heat is the arousal of passion in us. Put all those together and you have a person that is “raking fire to his chest.”

So how does one break the cycle? Just as in the fire triangle, one or more of the elements must be removed--before the flame ignites. For those that want to heed the Bible’s counsel to “deaden” immoral sexual desires, we first need to gain wisdom that only God can give us. This will help us appreciate that anytime we see anything that can fuel our passion, we turn our eyes and ears away from it. Next, we don’t allow our imagination “to go there.” We learn to control our minds and hearts. Reducing those first two elements will greatly help to reduce the natural heat that is inborn in all of us. Not to be forgotten is the power of prayer.