Vol. 20 No. 10 | March 5, 2018
It’s finally spring! At least for some of us. The trees are budding, grass is turning green, daffodils and buttercups are popping up, Bradford pear trees are in full flower, tulip trees have turned their pinkish-purple colors. The temperatures are warmer, and in some places, the rains have raised the rivers to overflowing.
Even if the signs of spring are still weeks away, when it arrives, it will bring most of us relief and rejuvenation. Spring brings with it the return of nature’s colors and a reminder that the earth is in a constant process of renewal. In some ways, perhaps even more that the beginning of a new year, spring awakens us to new possibilities, new adventures and restored hope.
Depending on your circumstances, spring cannot come soon enough. It’s been a rough few months. The darkness of the short days and long nights have drained you of energy and weakened your faith that things will ever be different. Maybe the decisions and actions of others have created a seemingly impossible situation. Or, health issues have brought frustrations and challenges and are forcing you to face new realities about your life and future.
So whether spring is exploding all around you, or you’re still shoveling snow and sliding on the ice, hang on. There is hope.
I cannot promise that your health issues will improve or go away completely. I cannot promise that your marriage will survive, or you will get your dream job, or your knight in shining armor will ride in on a white horse. But, I can promise you, if you are still breathing life, God is not finished with you yet.
May these words encourage you and offer support as you long for and hopefully embrace renewal, rejuvenation and hope.
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:21-28, The Message)
Remember, God is always working and always doing something good.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9, NIV)
Remember, how we think and what we think about are keys to how we live.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Titus 3:4-6, NIV)
Remember, God has already done the hard part.
When life piles up on me and it is difficult to believe that spring will ever arrive, this statement reminds me to not give up.
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” (Charles R. Swindoll)
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