In Genesis 1:14
(NIV) And God said, "Let
there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from
the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and
days and years,
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: (KJV)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven:
From the very
beginning of creation, God gave us seasons. Spring is beautiful and
full of new life—summer is warm and lovely. Autumn is one of the
most beautiful seasons, full of beautiful colors. But, the beauty of
Autumn leads to the cold of winter.
These seasons govern nature and
they also govern our lives and our souls. We go through all of them.
Autumn, one of the most beautiful seasons of the year—is the end of
summer. And Winter is the end of Autumn—the leaves that were made so
beautiful by the touch of cold have now fallen.
Winter is a time of coldness—or
absence of warmth. It appears that nothing is growing. In
most climates there is snow—a white ground that looks pretty at
first and then gets monotonous and the snow gets trampled and dirty.
The trees drop their leaves and
are bare—they are mere skeletons. Birds are not around and singing
anymore. Nothing seems to be growing. It’s cold and the sun is not
really shining.
When we go through spiritual
wintertime (and we all do) it seems like nothing is growing and,
sometimes, it even seems like there is barely any life left.
Winter is often a
symbol of hopelessness, bleakness and emotional isolation in art,
film and literature. It is also frequently a symbol of death. In Truth Winter is one of the most
productive seasons. On the surface, things may seem dead and
stripped, but UNDERNEATH, there are great things taking place.
A scripture to keep
in mind through all of this is
Isaiah 40:8(NIV)
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our
God stands forever."
In other words, seasons come and
go. We go through changes and cycles and some of them seem like
death, but God’s Word remains the same through it all. Therefore, we
don’t have to fear.
In her book “Don't Die In the
Winter”, Millicent Hunter wrote about the season of winter.
This is a description of her
writing: Are you enduring a prolonged season of adversity? Is your
life like a Northeast winter - cold, bleak, and hard? "winter" is a
necessary hardship to endure between the spiritual seasons of fall
(the fall of past expectations) and spring (the birth of new hopes
and blessings). Discussing the different spiritual seasons of life,
Hunter's own experiences serve as a powerful reminder of God's
faithfulness and offer hope as you wait for your spiritual winter to
end.
There are spiritual seasons
and cycles that people experience. A spiritual winter is simply
a season that tests our growth. We need to endure our winters,
for in the plan of God, spring always follows winter!
Just as the
seasons turn in nature, we experience seasons of the spirit; and
regardless of the external temperature, we feel an internal winter
from time to time. The long, cold "dark night of the soul" is a
period that must be withstood until the healing spring of new
inspiration arrives. Very few, if any of us, can look back on a
spiritual winter and say it was among the best times of our lives.
Still, winter has
its own beauty, both internally and externally. Robert Frost's
well-known poem expresses beautifully, I feel, the peacefulness of
"watching the woods fill up with snow." There is something about a
winter-filled forest. . . . The snow reflects just enough light to
prevent any fear of the dark we may feel. It is quiet. Everything
around us is so serene that we can't ignore it. We can't help but
feel our own serenity come to the surface from deep within, until we
don't even notice the cold . . . only the quiet.
I have to say that, in my own
experience, I have not particularly been aware of the beauty in
spiritual winter--only the pain. It is only after coming out of the
experience that I could appreciate the good of it. Then, when I went
through it again, the beauty was a little more evident--a little.
Job went through a spiritual
Winter. And some of us have been going through the same kind of
Winter.
A spiritual winter may seem like
God is not working in us. It may even feel like we are cold in our
hearts--like the spiritual field within us lies fallow. It may feel
like a crisis of faith but it is not faith that is in crisis; the
crisis is in not recognizing the season. Faith is not of ourselves,
it is a gift of God and though there may be times in our lives when
our faith lies dormant, we can't lose our faith or the Life that is
in us through Christ.
Spring will come again, but first,
we must get through this winter. It is in this season that you will
learn the most and be changed the most—so that, when Spring comes,
new growth will appear.
HOW DO WE RESPOND TO WINTER IN OUR SOULS?
Questioning. We may question God—ask what
He’s doing. We might believe He doesn’t love us anymore or that
maybe He never did. In the wilderness, the devil attacks us with
lies about God. He tries to get us to stop trusting God. He
tries to force us to sin or to get ahead of God's plan. Wherever
we are in our winter season, we need to make a choice to trust
God and not the devil so that we don't falter in the midst of
testing.
Apathy.
If we are not careful, the wilderness can produce
discouragement, and discouragement can result in apathy. WE
might be tempted to give up.
Constant
Introspection and self-criticism.
It’s good to examine ourselves, to be repentant when we sin.
However, it is not good to become so negative and critical that
we start to despise ourselves.
RESENTMENT AND BITTERNESS—This will come upon us if we don’t deal
with the feelings and experiences of winter. A root of
bitterness can grow and the scriptures say it defiles many.
King Solomon wrote the Book of
Ecclesiastes during the winter of his life.
His viewpoint is as different from what it was in Proverbs as day
and night. He had become apathetic and then bitter. But in the
end—His conclusion is recorded in Ecclesiastes 12, which brings
sense and wisdom to all that he wrote previously:
Ecclesiastes 12
1 Remember your Creator
in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
and the years approach when you will say,
"I find no pleasure in them"-
2 before the sun and the light
and the moon and the stars grow dark,
and the clouds return after the rain;
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
I grew up in Florida and have been here most
of my life. I only spent one year out of Florida, but in that year,
I experienced all the seasons. And winter in Florida, although cold,
is not winter like most people experience in other parts of the
country or the world.
Although I did not experience true winter most
of my life, I learned about it in books and movies and television.
But, imagine if I hadn’t. Imagine if I knew nothing about the
seasons—about winter and that it wasn’t forever-- and then moved to
a place where winter was very harsh and I was totally unprepared. I
would probably think this was the end of the world. God must be
angry. I would think this would last forever. It would be
devastating. And, when winter of the spirit and soul come, if you
are not prepared, it can be just as devastating.
Some of us are experiencing that right now. I
know what that’s like because, even though I always knew there were
seasons in nature, I did not always know there were seasons of the
soul and seasons of life. I found out the hard way. I wrote this
poem at the end of it.
WINTER’S END
1. WINTER:
Autumn colors turned to white,
And everything
went still,
I did not
understand at first,
This was the
Father’s will.
I did not know
that in my life
And in my soul
were seasons,
that all of them
were gifts from God;
All of them had
reasons.
The world turned
dark and bitter cold,
I could not draw
a breath.
It seemed to me
that life was gone,
That all around
was death.
I withdrew---I
did not think
That it would
ever end,
Never once did I
suspect
That winter was
my friend.
I grew resigned
to wintertime
and felt like
Hope had died,
And then, one
day, I sensed a change,
That started deep
inside.
2. NEW LIFE:
Gone the winter's silent veil
that shrouded
what looked dead.
All is melting, turning, thawing;
Promise lifts its head.
Through the drapes, a slanted ray
draws the eye--the hand…
to part the folds and dare regard
the once cold barren land.
Just yesterday it seemed bereft
of all that lived and grew.
The dreams were buried, vision gone,
and hope could scarce break through.
Yet deep within the sleeping earth,
the sap was flowing down,
replenishing, refreshing
what was rooted in the ground.
Apparent now that nothing died,
that underneath the Cold,
something new had come to be...
born out of the old.
Up through the surface, burst this life:
a blade of glowing green,
where yesterday it could not live,
where color was unseen.
And with this tiny bit of growth,
the Winter must depart.
Spring is here and Hope revived,
on Earth...and in my heart.
I want you to
know that God is speaking to you today. He is saying: “You’ve gone
through a long hard winter, BUT NOW, WINTER IS ENDING. It’s time to
lift your head and lift your heart—new life is coming.
SONG OF SOLOMON
2:11-13 (niv)
11 See! The winter
is past;
the rains are over and gone.
12 Flowers appear
on the earth;
the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves
is heard in our land.
13 The fig tree
forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.
Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me."
