Waiting In The Winter

I am sitting on my pink prayer couch listening to worship music. I need some time in the Presence of the Lord to be refreshed—a sabbath rest. I feel drained—I need this time desperately.   

It’s bitter cold out but the sun is shining brightly. Snow is falling from the trees in the chilling breeze—giving the appearance of snow-fall. The twirling flakes glisten in the sunlight. Capturing the beauty on camera eludes me. I am not familiar enough yet with my camera to know how to capture the beautiful scene happening just outside my window. I remember that I snapped a couple of photos the day before while it was snowing. God’s creation is amazing and beautiful. It gives me peace.

Winter. I feel as though winter is my perpetual season—naturally and spiritually. I am awaiting Aslan to arrive and break this curse of winter over the land. My beloved lilac shows no sign of life; I long to see the beautiful lavender flowers waking up from their cold slumber. I long to see fruit blossoms on my apple and apricot trees. The past few years we experienced mild winters that fooled the trees into blooming, only for the blossoms to be lost to one last frost that rears its head and destroys any hope of fruit. Where I live, it doesn’t matter if the grand groundhog sees his shadow or not—there are at least six weeks left of winter to be had.

The thing about seasons is that though it seems that they will last forever—they do change. They are a constant in the laws of nature. I have found that there is little one can do to make the natural seasons change. It is also true that spiritual seasons will last as long as the Lord needs them to last. You can pray, read the Word, and fast but if the Lord wants you in that season there is little you can do to break from the cocoon of winter and spread your wings and fly into spring.

There is a time and purpose for everything under heaven {Eccl. 3:1 NASB}.

Winter may last longer than you or I want, but God promises that He will never leave or forsake us. Though it is hard sometimes, we can rest in His promise. Winter is long, dark, and cold but He will not leave us in those hard times forever.

Every seed buried in sorrow you will bring forth in its time.[1]

After I have prayed and stood on the Word and believed and I find myself still in winter, I have to rest in the Lord and know that He has me there for His purpose. So, I pray some more, I worship, I cultivate a grateful heart, and I seek the beauty in the season that I am in and rest, knowing God cares for me and is working out everything for good. There is always a reason to worship and praise Him for all He has done—all that He has created.

Before I know it spring will be here and I will soak myself in the warmth of the sun. And it will be His timing and for His purpose. Look for the beauty in every season.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end {Eccl. 3:11}.

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[1] Elevation Worship, There Is A Cloud 2017. 

Happy Monday: Breathe On Me Oh Breath Of God

Happy Monday...I pray that you are strengthened by the Lord today. May He awaken you by His Spirit today. May you have peace and joy today. 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love the way you love, and do what you would do. 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, until my heart is pure, until my will is one with yours, to do and to endure. 

Breathe on me, Breath of God, so shall I never die, but live with you the perfect life for all eternity. 

Breathe on me, breath of God, Edwin Hatch (1878)

May He awaken you to His beauty all around you. May He breathe life into your soul and spirit today. Let us pray for an awakening...in the Church and in the world.  

 

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Sabbath Sanctuary: Reminder to Rest

Sabbath. It is the one theme that the Lord consistently speaks about to me—and on a regular basis. Some messages come hard to one like me who seems to be intent with doing things the hard way. I was looking for something else when I came upon it…two of my most treasured books. I read through the thoughts and nuggets that I underlined in times gone by. I must have read these jewels several times, and yet, each time I find something new, something that urges me into sabbatismos. I wanted to share with you a few of my favorites and hope that the words below will help you rest this sabbath weekend. Rest in Him. You will have no regrets.

Faith is finally this: resting so utterly in the character of God—in the ultimate goodness of God—that you trust Him even when He seems untrustworthy.

Faithfulness is, by definition, the predictable, the habitual, the sturdy, the routine. It is the evidence of things seen, but seen so often we’ve grown blind to them. It is the substance of things expected, expected so unthinkingly that we now take them for granted.

God’s faithfulness is one divine characteristic that we rest in so completely that our rest has become apathy. “In him we live and move and have our being.” We just hustle in, heads down, duty-bound, and clear the table.

Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild

Thankfulness is a secret passageway into a room you can’t find any other way. It is the wardrobe in Narnia. It allows us to discover the rest of God—those dimensions of God’s world, God’s presence, God’s character that are hidden, always. From the thankless. Ingratitude is an eye disease every bit as much as a heart disease., It sees only flaws, scars, scarcity. Likewise, the god of the thankless is wary, stingy, grudging, bumbling, nitpicky. He’s by turns meddlesome and apathetic, suspicious then indifferent, grubbing about in our domestic trifles one moment, oblivious to our personal catastrophes the next…But to give thanks, to render it as Scripture tells us we ought—in all circumstances, for all things, to the glory of God—such thanksgiving becomes a declaration of God’s sovereign goodness…You cannot practice thankfulness on a biblical scale without its altering the way you see. The more you do it, the more you find cause for doing it.

The devil distracts. God interrupts. And for some reason, we fall prey to the one and grow oblivious to the other. Brother Lawrence found the most simple device for reversing this. In his small, wise book, The Practice of the Presence of God, he speaks about a companionship with Jesus that is without boundary—not in time, or place, or circumstance. Anywhere, everywhere, in anything, you can be with God. God wishes it and invites it and is present and available right now for it.  

My pursuit of God had an end-of-the-world kind of desperation. Like Racheal crying to Jacob, “Give me children or I die,” I cried to God, “Give me your Spirit or I die.” I was spiritually lean, wily, stealthy, alert, and yet also vulnerable, wide open. A child and warrior both. Somewhere I got dull. The child got old, the warrior timid.

It is the times that we feel drained and tired, that we refresh ourselves—encourage ourselves in the Lord.

The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself {2 Sam. 16:13-14 NIV}. They arrived exhausted. But David refreshes himself—the word in Hebrew is nephesh. It is a word related to both breath and soul. Literally, David breathes his soul back to wholeness. He restores the inmost places.

This sabbath, stop and listen for God’s voice. He has much to say when we listen.

I want it. I want God’s voice to be to me as it was with John, a thing so real and solid and inescapable I can virtually see it. I want to live by faith, not by sight. And faith come by hearing. I want to have ears so tuned to the Voice that when God speaks there is not ignoring it. Speak Lord for your servant is listening.

Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

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Christmas Grace

This year has been a year of grace; a year of learning to give grace and to receive it. The theme for the new edition of SHINE is grace, so I spent a great amount of time editing articles from some very gifted writers on God’s grace. God’s grace is abundant in every area of life. If I may—I need some Christmas Grace from you.

I wrote back at the beginning of Advent, that I was on a journey to thankfulness, and I promised to post everyday a list of ten things that I am grateful for. I am still on that journey, I just didn’t post it on the blog. I had my last week of the term in school, which meant final papers and projects; my son broke his hand; and the same night I was in the ER with him, a very close family member was also in the ER, and after a trying week—was diagnosed with cancer. I regret not posting as events were unfolding, but I just couldn’t. I have so much to be grateful for, my son will not need surgery for his hand; the cancer is treatable. God is so good—even in the midst of some very trying circumstance. I love that through these hard times, the spirit of Christmas surrounds me. The Savior is before me wherever I turn and His grace sustains me. I still plan to keep writing on grace and thankfulness; keeping to my journey to thankfulness. Thank you for your grace.

I pray that you have a very Merry Christmas. May the Christ child be before you constantly, and the His peace abide with you. Remember, that wise men (and women) still seek Him. Seek for Him in every need you face, every trial to walk through. He is there. He was there for the Wise Kings who ardently sought for Him. The same Christmas gift available to them was also available to the shepherds—it is available for all who will receive.

The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings. ~ G.K. Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin

Seek Him. Prepare for Him. Make room for Him.

The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why. ~G.K. Chesterton, Generally Speaking

May the spirit of Christmas surround you and give you peace.