Without hope? Has God put us on hold?
It’s that time of year when God puts us on hold, and we appear to be without hope.
Christmas and especially New Year is a time for serious reflection, especially for us Scots. It is the only time we can truly reflect. Summer holidays come at different times, and Easter lands when it feels like it, but at the start of January we can truly reflect on the new year. I find this reflection helpful with the miserable weather. It’s blowing a gale and raining heavily outside as I write. I am totally miserable, my boat is still in the water (hopefully not sunk), my money is very low after Christmas, I am back at work where everybody else is miserable and worst of all, we have only a few hours of daylight, if we are lucky. The Bible says,
To every thing there is a season...' (Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV).
So no matter how hard we pray, we just can't pray our life's seasons away. There are some situations you aren't meant to change; we are just meant to survive!
'SO DON'T TRY TO GET OUT OF ANYTHING PREMATURELY...' JAMES 1:4 TM Paul calls these times, '...light affliction, which are...for a moment...' (2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV).
When you can't alter your circumstances you must learn to grow through them. In winter, trees take advantage of the season to rebuild their strength and prepare to be fruitful next season. Their sap and substance goes underground. Then in the spring they push their way back up again in the form of new growth.
Looking back over your life you'll find that your achievements are seasonal. Growth comes, then struggle, and vice versa. Each season has its purpose. God has a reason for not wanting you to be productive all the time. When he permits winter winds to blow through your life, he is preparing you for the coming spring.
James writes, 'Consider it a...gift...when tests...come... under pressure, your faith...shows its true colours.
So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.' One of the issues you'll struggle with, in a waiting period, is the urge to hurry, to make permanent decisions based on temporary circumstances. Don't do it! Every situation doesn't call for immediate action. Remember, patience comes from trust, and you can't trust a God you don't know. That's why you need to spend more time getting acquainted with Him through reading His Word and praying.
Just now the wind has blown down my much on my fence, blown the windows out my greenhouse, and smashed a glass table. There is no point repairing it just now. The money and time I do not have. I am going to let the wind do its worse. I need good weather to repair the fence, (which needed repair anyway). If any more glass is broken on my greenhouse, (which is good size), I am just going to demolish it, (as one door closes, another opens). And as for the table, it was bound to get broken one way or another.
Christmas and especially New Year is a time for serious reflection, especially for us Scots. It is the only time we can truly reflect. Summer holidays come at different times, and Easter lands when it feels like it, but at the start of January we can truly reflect on the new year. I find this reflection helpful with the miserable weather. It’s blowing a gale and raining heavily outside as I write. I am totally miserable, my boat is still in the water (hopefully not sunk), my money is very low after Christmas, I am back at work where everybody else is miserable and worst of all, we have only a few hours of daylight, if we are lucky. The Bible says,
To every thing there is a season...' (Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV).
So no matter how hard we pray, we just can't pray our life's seasons away. There are some situations you aren't meant to change; we are just meant to survive!
'SO DON'T TRY TO GET OUT OF ANYTHING PREMATURELY...' JAMES 1:4 TM Paul calls these times, '...light affliction, which are...for a moment...' (2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV).
When you can't alter your circumstances you must learn to grow through them. In winter, trees take advantage of the season to rebuild their strength and prepare to be fruitful next season. Their sap and substance goes underground. Then in the spring they push their way back up again in the form of new growth.
Looking back over your life you'll find that your achievements are seasonal. Growth comes, then struggle, and vice versa. Each season has its purpose. God has a reason for not wanting you to be productive all the time. When he permits winter winds to blow through your life, he is preparing you for the coming spring.
James writes, 'Consider it a...gift...when tests...come... under pressure, your faith...shows its true colours.
So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.' One of the issues you'll struggle with, in a waiting period, is the urge to hurry, to make permanent decisions based on temporary circumstances. Don't do it! Every situation doesn't call for immediate action. Remember, patience comes from trust, and you can't trust a God you don't know. That's why you need to spend more time getting acquainted with Him through reading His Word and praying.
Just now the wind has blown down my much on my fence, blown the windows out my greenhouse, and smashed a glass table. There is no point repairing it just now. The money and time I do not have. I am going to let the wind do its worse. I need good weather to repair the fence, (which needed repair anyway). If any more glass is broken on my greenhouse, (which is good size), I am just going to demolish it, (as one door closes, another opens). And as for the table, it was bound to get broken one way or another.
My real problems facing me at the moment are: money as I am really struggling, time as I am grossly overworked and have 10 million things to do, and hope for the future, so I can put some tangible plan in place. My people have much worse, death in the family, divorce and illness, so I would say what we need now more than anything is hope. Hope for many things, but consider what you have been through, has God helped you to survive, well he will help you survive again, (I hope). But that is the point, we have hope. We have been through it before, and we will go through it again without doubt, but that is what changes us, that is what makes us grow, and that is what gives us more faith, and more hope. Please contact me with your problems, then contact me next year, and tell me how they came to pass.
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