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Faith in the Fire: The Hotter the Fire, the Bolder the Prayer.
This week’s Prayer Cues are forged in the flames—drawn from real pain, raw healing, and the kind of faith that only rises when everything else burns away.
Jennifer Paulino
April 23, 2025
Refined Not Burned
Camping in Jarabacoa
Warm-up:If you haven’t read the devotional post entitled “Know Your Enemy: The Devil Is in the Details” I encourage you to go back and read it before continuing with today’s prayer cues. What you pray reveals what you believe—and what you believe shapes the story your life tells. The devotional reminded us that we’re in a real battle, and knowing the enemy is the start. Your testimony isn’t built on the highlight reel; it’s built in the trenches- through honest, gritty, faith-filled prayers. |  |
Feature Story
Where The Fire Found Me
Campfire in Cooperstown
Living this human experience means pain and loss are inevitable.
You can’t outrun it, can’t outdrink it, can’t outsex it.
You can mask it, sure—but it always bubbles to the surface. I know that first hand.
This week I'm taking you into the furnace with me—where grief, pain, and growth all collide—and showing you how bold, expectant prayers become the lifeline.
When I chose to walk away from my marriage, everything I had been pushing down for 24 years came spilling out. I couldn’t hide behind the image I built anymore. I was face to face with the truth. I didn’t recognize myself. I saw old scars and fresh wounds, childhood trauma and adult betrayal. I stood before God—bare, raw, undone.
No more lies to tell. No more arms to run to. Just me and Him. That moment stripped me, but it also introduced me to something deeper: real, honest prayer. Not rehearsed. Not pretty. Just real.
And just when I thought I had made it out of the fire, another wave came—this time through my grandfather. Watching someone you found so much safety and security in slip into an undefined time of rest makes you feel every emotion all at once. It cracked me open again.
But this time, I didn’t break the same. This time I had a weapon. My prayers weren’t soft whispers, they were declarations. They were bold and rooted in faith, not fear.
By this point in my life I had learned that the hotter the fire, the bolder the prayer.
I’ve learned that prayer is how we talk back to pain. It’s how we declare, even when it hurts, that God still gets the final word. And through it all—the grief, the surrender, the healing—I’m reminded: He’s not trying to burn me. He’s refining me.
Inspiration Story
Daniel 3: 16-28 — The Blazing Furnace
Furnace
And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. 23 So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames.
24 But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied.
25 “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god[a]!”
Prayer Points
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Their boldness didn’t stem from the absence danger but rather the embrace of the presence of God in it.
As you head into the second half of this week, here are some prayer points to challenge you to dive deeper into submission to God’s Will:
Lord, I ask that you give me bold faith that is strengthened in the midst of the fire.
Lord, show me where I am not trusting you with the small things so I can better prepare to surrender to you in the midst of the bigger things.
Lord, I want to walk in audacious faith that doesn’t back down from obedience, show me how to stand firm in your word by your Spirit even when the stakes are higher than I expected.
Fire tests the purity of silver and gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.
— Proverbs 17:3
Until next week,
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