Maybe you actually did it.
You listened to the episode, and somewhere in the middle of the week you opened Psalm 42. You read it slowly. Out loud, even. You waited for the line that would catch.
And nothing caught.
You closed it, and a very old voice said what it always says: See? You can't even do the small thing.
I want to stay right there with you for a minute, because I think that voice has the word wrong.
When Jesus told the church in Sardis to strengthen what remains, most of us hear a gym word. Grip harder. Feel more. Work it up.
Revelation 3:2
"Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God."
But the word underneath isn't about muscle. It's a builder's word. A post driven into the ground. A decision you don't reopen every morning.
Luke uses that same verb about Jesus Himself, on a road the episode never got to.
Luke 9:51
"As the day of His ascension approached, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."
Resolutely set out is a fair translation. But what Luke literally wrote is that Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem. Same verb as Revelation 3:2. He fixed His face on that road and never turned off it.
He knew what was waiting there. He'd already told His disciples twice in that same chapter. Nothing about Jerusalem was going to feel good. He didn't set His face because the road felt right. He set it because of who He was going there to die for.
Now look at the very first thing that happens once He does.
He sends messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to get a place ready for Him. And the village says no.
"But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem." — Luke 9:53
James and John are furious. And they have an idea — a big one:
"Lord, do You want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?" — Luke 9:54
Their fire was aimed at a village that shut them out. Ours usually gets aimed closer. At ourselves: ten minutes of nothing in a psalm, and the verdict on your own heart is already written. Or at the problem: you're drafting the fire-from-heaven version — the 5 a.m. alarm, the fast, the vow that starts with This time, Lord. It's the same pull.
"But Jesus turned and rebuked them. And He and His disciples went on to another village." — Luke 9:55–56
That's it. That's what a set face looked like on its first day. No fire from heaven. No speech. Just walking on to the next village.
Read it again: He went on to another village. Luke has just told us His face was set like a post in the ground. And the first thing a set face produces is a Man on foot, dust on His sandals, looking for the next place to stay.
So here's what I think the old voice gets wrong.
"Strengthen what remains" was never an order to feel something by Thursday. It's about where your face is pointed. You can open Psalm 42, feel nothing, close it — and still be someone whose face is set toward Jesus. The feeling didn't show up. The direction did.
That doesn't make the command soft. In the very next breath Jesus tells Sardis, "Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent." (Revelation 3:3) If something you know is wrong has been cooling your heart, a set face turns away from it. But notice: remembering, keeping, turning — none of those is a feeling either. They're all direction.
And yours isn't the first face that got set. His was. Before you ever had to hold anything firm, He fixed His face toward a cross and kept walking — through closed villages and friends who wanted fire — all the way there. He finished that road. And three days later, the tomb was empty.
You heard in the episode what Jesus asked Peter to do with that word. Here's what Peter did with it. Decades later, writing to Christians under pressure, he signed off like this:
1 Peter 5:10
"And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you."
That second promise — secure you — is our word. The man who once needed that word from Jesus is now handing it to strangers. And he doesn't write you'll manage it. He writes God will do it Himself.
He'd learned whose face gets set first.
This week, set the hour before you check the temperature.
Pick the time and the spot you'll open that psalm again: tomorrow, and the day after. Choosing that is your part. Miss a day? That's not a verdict either. Go on to the next one.
Then, when you open it and nothing catches, don't call down fire. Don't pass a verdict on your own heart. Close it, and walk on to the next village. Tomorrow, same spot, same hour.
That isn't failing at faith. Luke would recognize it: the set face he wrote about was walking too.
Three questions to sit with this week:
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When your faith goes cold, what's your version of calling down fire — the big fix you reach for that never lasts?
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Where is your face pointed right now? Not your feelings — your face.
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What's the next village for you this week: the small, ordinary step you keep skipping because it doesn't feel like enough?
The episode goes where this letter doesn't: into the rest of the letter Jesus sent to Sardis, the banked fire you uncover in the morning, and what Jesus could still see in a church everyone else had written off.
🎧 Listen: Can't Feel God Anymore? What Jesus Told a Dying Church
🎧 Season 2 · The Hope That Endures — the full season in order: → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaOMRPy55y5E
📖 And if you'd like company for the next seven mornings, The Lamp Hasn't Gone Out is a free 7-day devotional for the seasons when faith burns low. → faithisfire.com/resources
💛 One honest word before you go. If the flatness isn't only in your faith — if it's in everything, most days, for two weeks or more — please talk to a doctor or a counselor. It might be depression, and it can be treated. Going is not a step away from God. And if you've had thoughts of ending your life, reach out today: in the U.S. and Canada, call or text 988, any time. In the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans free on 116 123. Anywhere else, findahelpline.com will find a free, confidential line near you. If you're in immediate danger, call your local emergency number. People do come through this. Help works.
Father, some of us opened Your Word this week and nothing caught. We won't pretend it did. Thank You that You have said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you" — and that promise doesn't wait on what we feel. Thank You for Jesus, who set His face toward the cross for us and finished the road. Secure what remains in us, as You said You Yourself would. And tomorrow, at the hour we chose, keep our faces turned toward Him. In Jesus' name, amen.
Stay in the fire.
Norman
Faith Is Fire
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain.