What’s there?
By Sheila Jacobs
What’s your favourite season? Mine is spring, but many people love autumn. The colours of the leaves being shed in preparation for the winter – beautiful. The first frosts can be beautiful too, as we start to dig out our favourite jumpers and decide whether we need a new pair of boots! But of course, with winter comes the rising cost of heating; and the TV becomes a welcome alternative to rambling about outdoors!
Every season, though, has a beauty all of it its own. One of the things I like about autumn and winter is that we can see the bare branches, the structure of the trees. In the summer, the branches are obscured. In the winter, nothing is hidden.
Our lives can be like that.
When we go through tough times, the real structure of our lives is shown up for what it is. Winter-time in our life shines a light on what’s there – and what is not.
A gentle slide
In the actual winter, I get a bit lazy. And we can be like that in our spiritual lives. When the harsh weather arrives – the stormy circumstances, broken relationships, difficult times, lonely periods – what do we see? A solid prayer life that will carry us through, as we lean in to God? Or a hit-and-miss Christianity which is lukewarm at best?
Jesus doesn’t ‘do’ lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). But for much of the time, it’s easy to go along with the sort of spiritual life that fits in with everything else. I work, I see friends, I do church. I know I can put my hands up in praise in that congregation, and in that one, probably not. I know the ‘Christian-speak’ language, and my prayers sound wonderful. But my heart isn’t in it. I go home, and I don’t pray. It’s all just words.
There may be a valid reason why this has happened, but all too often it’s a gentle slide into compromise. Life’s just easier that way. No one notices. People think I’m fine – even though I spend most of the church service thinking about what I’m doing later, what I need to get from the shops, what to have for dinner.
If I’m clued up, naturally, I get ready for winter. I make sure my car is serviced and I have plenty of warm clothes. But what about spiritually?
Preparation
Ephesians 6 makes clear that we are in a battle, and that we need to be ready to alert to combat the schemes of the enemy. As Christians, we often fail to realise we are in a spiritual war; we have no choice. We are on the winning side, but while we walk the earth, we will all have skirmishes to deal with. Sadly, we all have winter times in our lives, when the snow and the frost threaten to freeze our souls. In Matthew 7, Jesus taught about building our lives on a firm foundation – on him, on the Word of God. When the storms come, as they inevitably do, we need to be able to ‘stand’, and stand firm!
If we’ve become lukewarm, comfortable, we may need to admit that our Christian life has become compromised. Life’s OK. Church is part of it. God is part of it. But he’s not the main part. We’re part-time Christians. But that won’t help us when the hailstones arrive.
As we prepare for the quieter season, naturally, it’s a good time to prepare our hearts and review just where we’re at with God. Is he our main relationship? Do we know him well enough to believe that he is good, and trust him even with the minutiae of our lives?
If we’ve got lazy spiritually, and we know it, perhaps it is time to come before our Creator and Redeemer, the One who shed his blood for us; the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, who knows why he created us, what good things he has created us to do (Ephesians 2:10), and the plans that he has for us. We often quote Jeremiah 29:10-11, saying we know God has good plans for us, but we forget that we need to call on him, pray, and that we will find him when we seek him with all of our hearts (vv12-13).
Conclusion
When winter comes, we can see dead branches, the ones that will not bear leaves or fruit next year. Let’s spend some time identifying the dead branches in our lives, and remember that to bear any fruit, the branch must be alive. Jesus said the key to a vibrant spiritual life was to ‘remain’ in him, remain connected, and that we wouldn’t bear fruit without that connection (John 15:4). Let’s make every effort to reconnect, to strengthen our faith in him, to step out into the new things he may be calling us to – whether that is a new relationship, a new job, a new ministry opportunity.
It can be helpful to imagine our lives as a garden, asking Jesus to point out any dead plants that need pulling up – old thoughts, maybe, old attitudes – or anything that is toxic that needs rooting out – unforgiveness, bitterness and so on.
Spring is around the corner. Winter has its uses. A time of rest, not laziness, but recuperation, necessary for the next step. Let’s use this time wisely, investing in our relationship with him – making him a priority, not an option. As we honour God, he honours us (1 Samuel 2:30), maybe in ways we didn’t expect!
All Scripture NIV 2011 UK
Sheila Jacobs is single, a writer, editor, retreat leader and mentor. She is an award-winning author of 19 books, including A Little Book of Rest: Walking Out of Anxiety and Fear (Malcolm Down).