Fire in the Soul
The Fellowship of the Burning Heart
A Night of Holy Fire
On the night of November 23, 1654, Blaise Pascal encountered God - not as a concept to be reasoned through, but as a consuming fire. For two hours, he was utterly overwhelmed, enraptured, undone. He wrote the words FIRE at the top of a small parchment, a testimony so precious to him that he sewed it into the lining of his coat. He carried it with him until his death.
This was no mere intellectual conviction. Pascal was already a man of formidable intellect, a mathematician, scientist, and philosopher. But this night was something deeper - an unshakable, undeniable experience of God’s presence. Not the God of the philosophers, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of Jesus Christ.
In that sacred moment, Pascal glimpsed the reality of what Jesus prayed in John 17:3: “Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The weight of the world dissolved. Only God remained. “Joy, joy, joy - tears of joy!”
The God We Can Know
Pascal’s words stand as a rebuke to the cold detachment that sometimes characterizes our faith. We can know much about God, yet still miss knowing him. That’s a professional hazard for many pastors and biblical scholars. Many in Jesus’ day searched the Scriptures but refused to come to him for life (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees, for all their study, didn’t recognize the very One they were waiting for.
How easy it is to reduce faith to formulas, to keep God at arm’s length with well-reasoned arguments and religious routines. But Pascal saw the foolishness of such an approach. He realized that true life - eternal life – wasn’t found in speculation, but in surrender. Not in intellectual mastery, but in personal encounter. Not in theological precision alone, but in the burning fire of communion with the living God.
Pascal had spent much of his life vacillating, drawn to Christ yet reluctant to yield. But that night, the fire consumed his hesitations. He recorded his anguish over his past rejections: “I am separated from him; for I have shunned him, denied him, crucified him.” Then, in desperation, he prayed: “Let me not be cut off from him forever!”
How many of us have felt this same sorrow? How often have we sensed the Spirit’s prompting but resisted? We’ve neglected the Word. We’ve been too busy, too distracted, too self-sufficient. But God, in his mercy, still calls.
A Heart Set Ablaze
Pascal’s Memorial was more than a passing emotional experience. It marked a radical turning point in his life. From that moment, he abandoned the pursuit of worldly greatness and gave himself fully to Christ. He sought God in prayer, in the Scriptures, and in obedience. He understood that “He can only be found by the ways that have been taught in the Gospels.”
This is the call before us. Not merely to admire Christ, but to follow him. Not merely to study truth, but to be transformed by it. Total submission to Jesus Christ. A heart aflame with love for God.
Pascal’s experience echoes that of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. As Jesus walked with them and opened the Scriptures, their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:32). So too must our hearts burn - not with a fleeting emotional fire, but with a steady, consuming passion for the Lord.
We can’t manufacture this fire, but we can seek it. We can pray for it. We can surrender ourselves completely to God’s refining work. Pascal’s cry should be our own: “May I never be separated from him.”
Let’s not settle for a faith of mere knowledge. Let’s press on toward a faith of deep, personal communion with Christ. And in that sacred pursuit, may our hearts burn with the fire of his presence.
Questions for Personal Reflection
Have you ever had a moment when the reality of God’s presence overwhelmed you? How did it change you?
In what ways are you tempted to approach God primarily through intellect rather than relationship?
What would it look like for you to surrender fully to Christ in this season of your life?
Walking Points
Set aside time this week to pray through Pascal’s Memorial (see below). Ask God to make his presence real to you in a fresh way.
Read John 17 and reflect on Jesus’ prayer for us to know God deeply. Consider journaling your own prayer in response.
If this devotion encouraged you, consider sharing it with others who may need the same reminder. And if you haven’t already, subscribe to Walking Points so you never miss a new post. Let’s continue growing together in faith and grace!
The year of grace 1654,
Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology.
Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.
From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,
FIRE.
GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day's exercise on the earth.
Not to forget your words. Amen.