Do you ever feel like your faith is in a deep freeze, spiritually dark? Your joy has gone silent? You feel like nothing’s growing and God is just quiet? Stay with me to the end of this episode because you’re going to see why winter might be the most important season of your spiritual life.
And by the way, if these morning coffee devotionals warm your soul, tap subscribe. Share this with a friend who could use some hope today. When God built the world, he didn’t skip winter. Think about it. He could have. It could have been perpetually summer. I wonder if heaven is going to be springtime all year round. God could have made the world like that, but he didn’t.
He included cold, short days, and long nights when he sent the Earth in its orbit around the sun. And I think it’s because for things to truly live and flourish, they need rest just as much as they need sunshine and warmth. And I think the same is true for you and me. When life slows down and things begin to get quiet, growth seems still.
I think that’s not failure. I think that’s God’s design. I think that it’s God inviting you and me deeper into trust. Jesus says in Matthew 15, he says, “I am the vine and you are the branches. Remain in me and you will bear much fruit.” You see, at the time he says it, the fruit’s not showing up yet.
It’s a resting time. It’s an abiding and waiting time. He didn’t say work harder. He said abide, remain, rest. That’s a winter word. It’s the stillness that masks unseen growth below. If you’ve ever stood in a vineyard or in a garden in January, it looks dead, right? Like no growth at all. But underground, the roots are very much alive.
They’re stretching deeper. They are growing strength for the spring when it becomes time to produce fruit. And I think that that’s what God is doing in you and me. He’s building endurance during the winter. He’s building humility and faith. This is when we need to trust him during the dark and cold times, even when God seems silent.
So, if you’ve been praying things like, “Lord, where is the fruit? Where is the harvest that I’ve been praying for for my children, for my my job, for my health?” God may be whispering to you during this winter time. I’m growing your roots first. I was just talking with somebody about this yesterday. If you want fruit, nourish the roots.
