It is officially two months and one week until Spring. I prefer to say, “It is 68 days until Spring, March 20, 2023.” Somehow that makes me feel a little warmer today and one day closer to Spring again. Where we live, people are still battling seasonal illness, now, for weeks. Whether it’s the infamous Kentucky Crud, respiratory illness or common colds, they seem to linger even longer this year.
The good news is that our winter season will change and Spring will arrive right on schedule, as normal. God has scheduled our seasons of life. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” We normally laugh or sigh a bit on Groundhog Day, February 2nd. Punxsutawney Phil predicts six weeks of winter are left if he sees his shadow.
Whatever happens on Groundhog Day our Spring season will be a welcome relief. Hang on, our best days are just around the corner. Do not grow weary in winter and discouraged; our Springtime flowers and green grass will return soon. Summer vacations and outdoor barbecues will return for our families to enjoy.
This weekend Journey Church shares part three in our current winter series, LET HOPE IN. In part three we’ll explore two distinct paths in the Christian life each day. One path is much harder and impossible to ever enjoy. It is the path of self-only-effort, trying to master our sin habits. Trying harder all the time to please God by being perfect; conquering my sin.
This approach to God feels much like harsh, winter weather; which usually becomes eternally exhausting. Nobody gets it right all the time. We’re not Jesus. We need a Savior. Jesus changes everything. He brings new hope to us each day.
The other path is more pleasant and enjoyable. It can be something like the arrival of Springtime weather after a long, bitter, difficult Winter season. Instead of trying to please God by more effort; just trying harder and harder, wanting to conquer our sin, ourselves - it is trusting God more, for His grace and mercy when we fail and fall short of His perfection.
If you are wearied by winter weather and dreary days, hope is not lost. God has a plan for each of us this year. “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’ ” Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
Let’s try something a little different this New Year. Rather than just beginning more fad diets and returning to the gym, let’s also begin to enjoy life more, each day. Doing our life out of our own power, only, is exhausting. Some days it feels like Winter weather that never ends. Let’s make Jesus a priority early in the New Year. He is the game changer. Jesus changes everything.
We will never know Jesus power, until we give up our own power, which is really not power at all.
See you at Journey this weekend…
