True prayer must aflame. Christian life and character need to be all on fire. Lack of spiritual heat creates more infidelity than lack of faith. Nothing short of being red hot for God can keep the glow of heaven in our hearts, these chilly days. The early Methodists had no heating apparatus in their churches. And they declared that the flame in the pew and the fire in the pulpit must suffice to keep them warm.
This flame is not mental vehemence nor fleshly energy. It is divine fire in the soul. intense, dross-consuming – the very essence of the Spirit of God. Nor erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace or person, can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.
E.M. Bounds, “A Treasury of Prayer“
