DAILY READING
REFLECTION
The Presence of God in the Wintery Storm
by Dan Kidd
Have you ever been through a season where it felt as though God was miles, even lightyears, away? Seasons where you felt lonely and unseen, or where the Lord seemed deaf and mute to your prayers? Many Christians have experienced this very thing. This is one of the ways we might experience a Winter of the Soul, so to speak, where our spiritual lives seem dull, dim, and lifeless. Where our prayers feel as though they float into space without an ear to hear them, our present circumstances crowd out our future hope, and even the thought of joy feels fictitious.
For some, perhaps many of us, this experience might leave us wondering if we've done something wrong. We might find ourselves searching for a reason the Lord may be ignoring us our withholding from us. But the truth is, winters of the soul don't necessarily have anything to do with our behavior or our desire for the Lord. Sometimes winter is just a season that comes and goes. Perhaps you've never experienced such a thing. Maybe you're quite familiar with it. Either way, it is good for us to know that we are not alone in this experience, and the Bible wants us to know so.
Job was a righteous man who lived in the blessings of God. But, as you may have noticed, sometimes righteous people suffer. So was the case for Job. In the midst of his enduring suffering, Job cried out to the Lord for relief, but he didn't receive it. It felt to him as though the Lord had turned a deaf ear to him in the season of his most profound need. To make matters worse, Job's friends all accused him of unrighteousness, but he had nothing to do with the trouble he was in; he was innocent. Where was the God of justice and mercy in this calamity?
In today's passage we hear from the final chapter of the book of Job. Job had been through a season of incredible suffering and after a while, Job began to accuse God of being unjust to him. But the Lord is just, and was present with Job in even in his suffering, and God responds,
Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
Do you have an arm like God’s,
and can your voice thunder like his?
This exchange between Job and the Lord is truly helpful in understanding how we might be people who trust God with our whole lives even in the most wintery of seasons. It is good and healthy that we would long for God's help and presence. All is as it should be when we seek the Lord in our times of trouble. It is perfectly right to us to ask for the Lord's response, to express our desire for God and his action. But, when our sorrow and desperation turns into false accusations and slander against God, we have lost our way. Because, we have all the evidence in the world that the Lord is generous, kind, merciful, and just. In Jesus, though in this life we will have trouble, the world has been overcome. The Holy Spirit is with us, always. The final word for all of us is not this wintery tundra but God's Kingdom come where the sun is replaced by God's radiant light.
Our hope is in the Lord. I way out of the cold is the way of the Spirit. The winter of the soul is an opportunity for God to meet us in a new, personal, and life-bringing way--as though spring has come. Let it be that we could join Job in this confession, "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you."
PRAYER
Lord, you are the God of every season under heaven and every season of the soul. Today we pray that we would know you and seek you in every season. For those frozen in soul's winter, we pray for your light; that your faith would keep them fastened to your hope. Remind us of your faithfulness and the promises of your Kingdom breaking in, even now. Give us eyes to see you. Amen.
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