As I sat down to write this sermon, it was cold. Earlier yesterday, we had quite a snow squall that lasted probably less than five minutes, but I took some video of it and posted it up on my Facebook and Instagram stories.
A couple of hours later, I took our garbage to the dump, or transfer station as it’s appropriately called, and just during that little walk to take the garbage from my house to the car, it was so cold it hurt. The wind whipped hard. I used Evelyn’s car because Diana had the truck at work, and I slipped on the driveway––thankfully I didn’t fall, but had a nice little glide. I tried opening Evelyn’s trunk and it was frozen shut. I tried opening her rear doors and they were frozen shut, so the garbage rode in the passenger’s seat next to me. Thankfully we only had two bags.
When I got to the transfer station, I pulled up to the window to give the guy my ticket and the car door window was frozen shut so I had to open the door to hand him the ticket. And thankfully, when I got home and pulled into our driveway, that’s when I heard a loud noise coming from the back, and the trunk decided to open then rather than while I was still on the road.
I remember when we took our trip down south a couple of years ago, and we stopped in Virginia, and for some reason, we mentioned where we were from, and the lady at the store we were at said, “Oh, I’d love to go up north where it snows. Just like in a Hallmark movie.” And she had this big smile on her face, and we didn’t know what to say.
Winter can be pretty if you’re watching a Hallmark movie, but it can be bitter too. And that’s what I want to talk about today, getting through the harshness of our spiritual winter.
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Isaiah 55, and we’ll read verses 11 and 12. And then, if you have a bookmark, turn with me to Psalm 147, and we’ll read verses 15-18.
And since we’re talking about how cold it is, I have a story about a freezer. Actually, an ice house. I never heard of ice houses before, but…
“Before refrigerators, people used ice houses to preserve their food. Ice Houses had thick walls, no windows and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the ice houses and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
‘I closed the door,’ the boy replied, ‘lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.’”
Often, we do not hear God speak to us because we do not listen well enough.”
What I would like to talk to you about today is, even though we may be in a cold, wintery time or season of life, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t still there. If we take the time to listen carefully, we can still hear his still, small voice. And we can find him and see he’s still at work ticking away, just like that watch.
Scripture:
Isaiah 55:10-11 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Psalm 147:15-18 15 He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast?18 He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
Central Truth: So as I mentioned, God is present in the storms of life. The storm may be a freezing blizzard, and we cannot see ten feet in front of us. But that doesn’t mean God isn’t there, just because we can’t see him or hear him well. And it doesn’t mean God can’t see or hear us.
But what about that storm in the first place? Well, according to those verses, we read that God sends storms and wintry seasons because they accomplish His will. So if we put that together, we see that in the midst of what seems like a harsh situation, not only is God there, and not only can he see and hear us, but He has a purpose for our harsh winter season of life.
Before I go too much further, what do I mean by the winter season of life? Most of the time when it’s used, it means aging, but for today, I mean it to be a tough season. A harsh season. A season that seems to drag on, without warmth or brightness…and we’re okay with it for a little while, but before too long, we are just so eager for Spring to arrive. We know it’s coming, but we get impatient.
So in the meantime, what do we do? We wait and we trust. Easier said than done, right? Most sermons are.
In 1985, for the first time in more than fifty years, Congress authorized the issue of official US government gold coins. Beginning in 1986 these new coins came on the market. Each of these American Eagles, as they are known, is guaranteed by the US Mint to contain the stated amount of pure 22 karat gold. They come in 1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 1-ounce sizes, and buyers from around the world trust these coins because they trust the promises of the United States government that the coins are what they claim to be.
When it comes to Scripture, we have something far more reliable than the guarantee of a government—we have the promises of Almighty God that His Word is perfect and pure. God promised to preserve His Word for us. That means that, according to the promise of God, we can have complete faith that every word in the Bible is there on purpose. Psalm 12:7 affirms, “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.”
And if we go back to our first scripture verse this morning, Isaiah 55:10-11:
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
The Bible Panorama says: God’s people can have the confidence that just as water coming down as rain or snow achieves its aim in watering the earth and bringing forth fruit, so His word will have the same effect and will prosper to that end. God intends His word to be life producing, refreshing, and to accomplish what He has purposed.
It boils down to trusting God. In times of life’s harshness and bitterness, we have God’s word to rely on. We might not see things happening, we might not hear things happening. In the midst of the cold, bleakness that we see and feel around us, there’s the promise of Spring right around the corner.
If we look at the calendar, one month from today––March 20, is the first day of Spring. We wish that we could just flip open God’s calendar and see when our Spring is going to arrive. But we can’t. We have to trust. And we have to be like that boy in the ice house. We have to be still and listen, and we’ll find God at work.
Charles Spurgeon said: It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” is heaven-born faith.
In order to have that kind of faith, we sometimes have to go through those kinds of things.
And by going through those kinds of things, God produces something in us that He wishes to accomplish––just as the winter snow and summer rains produce a crop, God’s rain and snow produce in us a fruit that He wishes to produce and can unfortunately only be brought by rain and snow.
We know what type of fruit God wants to produce because he says it in Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. You know, all of those things sound nice, and if you meet someone who has half of those qualities, you’ve met a good friend. But what does it take to produce half of those qualities?
Patience? You’ve heard to never pray for patience, right? Why? Because you’ll have your patience tested in order to produce more patience.
Self-control is the same thing. Man, is it tough for me to control my appetite. You know what I have to do to lose a few pounds? That’s right. Not eat. And if I do eat, I have to not eat what I want. And just a couple of days ago, Diana made sure that I got on that treadmill thing we have in the living room because I ate a couple of cookies. Mind you, Rose made a couple of batches of cookies, so what was I supposed to do?
Self-control is tough when you have to control yourself.
But it produces something in us. Love is tough to obtain because you have to go through things like maybe not being loved like you should. Joy and peace may be challenged so that you can have joy and peace in any situation. And bear that fruit.
The winter doldrums of life produce a fruit in us that we wouldn’t have otherwise––a greater patience, a greater peace, more joy, more love, whatever it might be. We’ve gone through harsh things to make us a better, more Godly person. And look at what we can do with those things––not only for ourselves but when it comes to ministering the love of God to others.
God says that these things, even though they might be harsh, will end up being a blessing. He said, they “will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
The second set of verses this morning are similar:
Psalm 147:15-18 says: 15 He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. 16 He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. 17 He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? 18 He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow.
While this can be taken literally, we can look at this symbolically, too. This whole psalm is a praise song to the Lord. But you notice again, this can all be done by the word of the Lord. God gives a command and poof, there’s rain, there’s snow. He gives another command, and it stops.
Job 37: 9-13 says this: The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. 10 The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. 11 He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. 12 At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them. 13 He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love.
At that time, of course, they didn’t know how the weather worked or how the clouds hung in the sky. It was a mystery to them, and it was more awe-inspiring. And so, even though we may have discovered how these things happen––and we can predict pretty accurately into the next week or two what will happen down to the minute––that does not change the power of God to do as he pleases, and for his will to be accomplished in the earth, on the earth and in the hearts of mankind.
And remember Job, of all people, endured extreme hardship. He didn’t deserve any of it. It was a test of his will and his worship.
Matthew Henry describes The Book of Job as simply the history of one man’s extreme sufferings, and his patience under them (Job 1:1–2:13); not without a mixture of human frailty. He also said, upon the whole, we learn (as said in Psalm 34:19) that “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but” that when the Lord “delivers them out of them all,” the trials of their faith will be found to praise, and honor, and glory.
So in the end, whatever trials we go through not only produce a greater fruit in us, but it also ends up glorifying God.
Again, God has a purpose for our pain, whether we understand it as we’re going through it or not. Job had no idea, but eventually––if this is a true story and not a parable––Job must have understood in order for him or someone else to write down the challenge between God and Satan at the beginning of this story. And God rewarded Job for his faithfulness during this trial.
At least we have God’s word and his promises. Job didn’t have all of that. He had faith, he had reasoning and understanding, but he didn’t have a Bible with God’s promises. At least we have that, The Holy Spirit, and the testimonies of others for us to lean on and gain encouragement.
Bridgeway Bible Commentary says of Psalm 147:15-20: By sending bitterly cold weather [God] toughens [his people] to endure hardship; by sending pleasant weather he reminds them that he is still caring for them (15-18). Above all, he has given them his word. Through this word they can know him better and as a result bring him further joy (19-20).
Studylight.org quotes W. Simpson as saying, The frost and the snow and the ice serve a great purpose in the physical economy, so that without the cold of winter we would have no spring bursting with renewed life, no summer with its warmth and invigorating growth, and no autumn with its rich fruit. In the same way there is a Divine purpose in those harder and more stern experiences of our human life. Like the snow, the frost, and the ice, trials and difficulties and sufferings come from the hand of God, and are the greatest of blessings in the formation, correction, and development of our character, if they are rightly used. God produces and controls, and uses them for His own purposes in us, and by their means He disciplines our character, and induces in us greater spirituality of heart.
I know, it’s not what you want to hear. I know you want to hear about God’s goodness; I know you want to hear about happiness and joy and prosperity and all of those things. But, sometimes, you have to take the long hard unplowed icy windy steep road in order to get to those good things. Sometimes, good has to be born out of the bad. Sometimes, God wants to toughen us up. Sometimes we have to have that ground tilled before he plants that seed, and then that seed grows and nurtures, then he prunes, and after a while, we eventually produce that good fruit.
We don’t like the winter season to drag on and get bitterly cold. We don’t like the ice and the wind. We don’t mind a little bit of it. We don’t mind it in December when it helps make everything a little more Christmassy. But boy, once February comes around and Valentine’s Day is over, we’re through with it.
And it happens year after year after year.
And so does the whole spiritual winter. It comes and goes. Some years it’s mild, and others it’s a whopper and it hangs around for a bit too long. But it doesn’t come without a purpose. It accomplishes exactly what God intended it to accomplish.
And like I said, in the end, we’re a better person, we can minister more effectively and God is glorified.
I’ve come across this verse a lot recently, and to close, I’m going to share it with you again. You know this one, it’s out of Romans chapter 8.
“28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
And “all things” include our spiritual winters.
Let’s pray: Dear Lord, thank you for your winters. We may find it tough to thank you and praise you for them. But we do because we know that they serve a purpose. Hardships help make us the person you long for us to be. As we talked about recently, you are the potter, we are the jars of clay.
Lord, I pray that you would use the winter that we may be going through right now to bring forth your water for our soil. I pray that the hardship will produce hardiness of soil in us so that we may bear better fruit this coming year than last year. May you produce that fruit within us for the sake of others, for the sake of ourselves, and for the glory of you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by M W from Pixabay
