The Winter of your Soul

Psalms 74:17: You set the boundaries of the earth, and you made both summer and winter.

What I will be sharing with you in a moment is what I read this today in one of my devotionals. But I read it today as the morning paper it was so relevant....We get disappointed with people and the lack of results we see especially in ministry. But I know that God controls the seasons. Here in the North East it gets cold. I love winter, at least until after Christmas them I am thinking of warmer climates. Winter to me has been more of an ambience of the Holiday. It fits well with Christmas and the New Year’s celebrations. You may love snow; some of you even love the cold but no one likes winter in the soul unless but it has a purpose! It is sent by God for a reason.

Here is what CH Spurgeon says I have tried modernizing the English without butchering the poetry too much.

"My soul, you start this wintry month with your God. Remember this: Summer and winter show He is in control of every season. In fact, he said that these are signs of his enduring promises. {Gen 8:22} Even the cold snows and the piercing winds all remind you that He keeps His pledge and promises and assures you that He will also keep that glorious covenant which He has made with you in the person of Christ Jesus. He is true to His Word in the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world, and he will do everything he promises because of Jesus Christ.

Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it you are going through your soul’s winter it can be very painful to you: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the budding flowers of expectation: He scatters the frost like ashes over the once green meadows of our joy: He casts 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 you should not, you cannot 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 harmful insects, and kills raging diseases; they break up the soil in the fields, and sweetens the soul. Oh that such good result would always follow our winters of affliction in our soul!

How we prize the fireplace and the heat when it is so cold. 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 near 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 labors which suit the season, we cannot be lazy like the man in proverbs who will not plough by reason of the cold; for he shall be a beggar in summer because he has no harvest.” Spurgeon {Edited}

"Summer and Winter Spring time and Harvest, Sun, moon and Stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness mercy and love. Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see....all I have needed thy hand hath provided, Great is they faithfulness Lord unto me."