God has designed winter for a purpose. He also designs our dark cold days for His purpose. I appreciate Spurgeon's words on a day like today.
My soul begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind thee that he keeps his covenant with day and night, and tend to assure thee that he will also keep that glorious covenant which he has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to his Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, will not prove unfaithful in his dealings with his own well-beloved Son.
Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it be upon thee just now it will be very painful to thee: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes over the once verdant meadows of our joy: he casteth forth his ice like morsels freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all, he is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore thou canst not murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills, are of the Lord’s sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and put a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods, and sweeten the soul. O that such good results would always follow our winters of affliction!
How we prize the fire just now! how pleasant is its cheerful glow! Let us in the same manner prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw nigh to him, and in him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of his promises, and go forth to labours which befit the season, for it were ill to be as the sluggard who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall beg in summer and have nothing.
Spurgeon, C. H.: Morning and Evening : Daily Readings. Oak Harbor, WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. December 1 AM
1 comment:
Spurgeon’s words are so encouraging but so very challenging. Just last night as I finished reading 1 Thessalonians, Paul’s words stood out to me, “And so we will be with the Lord forever”. As I closed my eyes and meditated on these words, an inexpressible yearning to see Jesus filled me and I cried come, Lord Jesus, come. Come soon Lord Jesus. With all of my being I wanted to see Him and talk to Him face to face, my hearts cry for those moments was, come Lord Jesus. And ever so gently He whispered, there is still work to be done till I come. It feels like winter when we can’t see the One we love, but let us diligently seek to do works that please Him, let us continue to bring others to Him and let us be all He has called us to be. Let us believe Him. And as we do this what a reward we will reap in due season – we will actually see Him face to face! Oh to finally be done with the winter of this life and step into the summer of His everlasting presence! Let this hope spur us on.
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