Winter: A Time of Reverence: #4

The World is Such a Busy Place. Being Busy, We Can Lose Things that are Important to Us. Winter is Time to Remember Things.

This is the second to last segment about winter before we get into spring. Winter, beginning December 21, is a time of REVERENCE. Spring, beginning March 21, is a time of RENEWAL. Summer, beginning June 21, is a time of RESOLVE. Fall or Autumn, beginning September 21, is a time of REFLECTION. We’ll be looking at all of these seasons during 2021.

Winter Is A Time For New Perspective

Winter is a time for a new perspective — a new perspective about ourselves, other people, life, God, and other things. And it’s also a time of reverence. We should consult God about what we’re trying to get a new perspective about.

We often search for God in all the wrong places. We want the easy, lazy way out, so we want someone to tell us what we should believe or do about our new perspective. We want a 30-minute sermon — a video interview of how someone else found a new perspective — a ‘Cliff Notes’ version of some Bible truth — a podcast on the 5 steps to gain a new perspective.

We’re like the person Paul writes about: we’re searching and learning forever, but we’re never quite able to come into a knowledge of the truth.

The place to look is the Bible, and especially the New Testament gospel. There is only one Bible, and it has existed for over 20 centuries. I first discovered the Bible back in about 1970, and it was by means of a Readers Digest article. The article said that, after WWII, research institutes were set up to prove anything in the Bible wrong — any historical report, any prophetic utterance, or any truth about daily life and living and dealing with issues.

At that time, after about 25 years, they remained totally silent. While they had questions, they had no proof of any error. We all have questions, at least if we’re human. If we didn’t have any questions, we’d be God.

But what this said to this ‘intellectual lawyer who had been educated beyond his intellect,’ and who thought everything in life was a shade of grey and uncertain, was that the Bible was at least worth considering!

Life Is Challenging and Uncertain

Life is uncertain, but God is certain in what he says, and what he asks us to believe. The gospel was given to straighten out our thinking so we connect to God’s reality and at least consider it. Paul calls this ‘renewing the mind and transforming our thoughts.’ So we should at least CONSULT God.

God gives us the unction to change and even helps us do so. But we must ask him to and expect him to. He doesn’t force any of us to do anything — even believe in his free gift of eternity and take hold of it.

Yes, life can be challenging and uncertain, but God helps us in every challenge and uncertainty if we ask him to. The more humbly we ask, depending on his faithfulness, the further we get. The more prideful we ask — telling him what to do — the less we experience.

Expectations Hurt Us and Deflate and Derail Us

Yes, expectations can hurt us. This is why the Bible speaks of living in faith, which means faith in God. Expectations are born in us. We define them and demand they be fulfilled to our specifications. Pessimism about God and life often erode our thinking about God and life if our desires aren’t met the way we want them to be met.

Too often, we are idealistic, not realistic.

Idealists often get deflated and derailed by life. Bumps in the road, chuckholes, and detours — not to mention dead ends — make us question ourselves, not to mention God.

This is why getting a new perspective, with God’s help and guidance, is so important. And winter is the best season to do this. Spring is more a time of personal renewal, and summer is a time of personal resolve and seeing things become reality. Fall is a time of reflection on things we have done.

Winter is a time to strengthen our roots and get deeper into things that matter most — or at least things that should matter most.

Most People Don’t Like Quietness

We often don’t like quietness. We’re not sure what might be suggested to us if we are quiet. We want to be the architect and we want to initiate things so we can choose what we think is best for us. This is sometimes called ‘Being the master of our destiny.’

In some way or another, our thought is most often, “Lord, give me a better life, and here is how I think you should do it.”

Most people like some form of noise because they fear quietness. I was a western U.S. tour guide for 8 summers (April to October) for Globus Tours — South Dakota to California and Montana to Arizona. My driver and I took 40 to 50 great people on trips of 7 to 14 days, depending on the itinerary.

On their vacations, I had to get up early to prepare for the day. I’d walk down the hall while most people were still just getting out of bed, and I’d notice there was a T.V. on in almost every room. Why? It’s because most people don’t like quietness. They prefer talking, or at the least music, even if they are not tuned into it.

Talking says what to think. We don’t trust what we might think in quietness.

“Be still and know that I am God” is an Old Testament Bible verse. It’s a verse that scares us. “What might God ask of me if I let him speak?” This question is not founded in God’s love and grace in the New Testament gospel. The gospel is, ‘good news of good things.’

But the more we let him be God, the more our uncertainties diminish. And winter is the prime time to let this become reality for us.

God Helps Us Solve Problems

The gospel says, “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” This doesn’t say all things are good. We all know that would be a lie. And Jesus himself said, “In this world, you will have problems” (he said tribulations). Problems are just one ingredient to our world and we must deal with them. This says things work out for good, or at least for the better if we work them out with God’s help.

Psychology has determined that our continual effort to avoid problems, and the emotions associated with them is one reason for mental illness. How do you avoid something that is unavoidable? It is said trying to accomplish this in our lives is ‘psychological suicide.’ The fact is very clear and simple: we all have problems. Trying to avoid them does not avoid them. It magnifies them.

What we must do is not to allow problems to get the best of us. And God helps us do this at every turn. Jesus says, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” And he says, “Without me, you can do nothing.” This applies to problems.

In WINTER, things are slower, and we often think about our problems. REVERENCE means we think about them with God, asking for his help. I mean, the problems already exist, so why not ask him for help?

The gospel says God gives us all his blessings… Jesus says ‘his entire Kingdom is ours.’ It says we are given the wisdom of God, and that we even have the mind of Christ if we are living his gospel. It is REVERENCE if we consult God and ask him to give us more of these things.

We are a very special ‘somebody’ in the Kingdom of God if we live in him. We are given truths that are almost totally unbelievable, even if we’re believers. We are told, “As Jesus is, so are WE in this world.” Jesus says his Father loves us as much as he does him. We’re told he lives through us. We experience this if we believe it.

But skepticism and unbelief erode away at any foundation we may have. We will talk about this more next time, in the LAST segment on WINTER.

Here are the links to the prior articles on the winter season: Winter #1 Winter #2 Winter #3