We
are in the season of the slow, long months of winter. Of grey skies and
cold tight air. This time of year can make one feel weary. Emotionally,
physically, and particularly spiritually, you can feel downtrodden.
It
can be disheartening when you feel like you have nothing more to give
or offer to those around you, whether its family, friends, or someone in
need. Oftentimes, we can pour out of ourselves until there is nothing
left. We forget that it should not be coming from us, but from our
Father. That we need to spend time with Him, filling up and recharging.
I read a verse the other day that buoyed my spirits :
Philippians
1:6 “...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
This
creates a sense of relief within me. That even when we feel empty and
exhausted, that we are not condemned or written off by God, but instead
He continues to walk with us. It is relieving to know that God is
refining us, polishing us, working away at our imperfections. Even in
the seasons where all we feel is weariness and fatigue.
That is freeing.
We
don't have to come to Him, heavily done up and hiding our imperfections
beneath a mask. We can't. Instead, we can come to him with our hands
and feet dirty, with our minds and our hearts messed up. We can come and
fall at His feet. He is our good Father and He loves his children very
much.
It is there that He can continue the
“good” work in us. He began a good work and he will continue working on
us. It is there that we can be refilled.
God
is not going to give up on us. He is not going to stop the good work He
began. That is a comforting thought. That is freedom. We don't have to
have it all together. We don't have to pretend that everything is a-ok
all the time. We can continue to trust and walk with our Father, who is
leading us by the hand, and know that in the end, it will be okay.
Part
of the journey is to continue to choose Him, to proclaim the truth and
promises of His word even when we don't feel like it, and most
definitely worship and praise Him when we are in the eye of the storm.
Isaiah 40: 28-31
“Do
you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the
Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and
his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and
increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and
young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and
not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
