Winter in Europe is cold and dreary. Days are short and often dark. Unless it is covered in snow, the landscape looks grey and uninviting. Yet, winter, for nature, means regeneration. Eyes cannot see the change but deep in the earth, something is happening. There is a renewal of power and strength, energy and life, readying itself for the upcoming of spring and the bursting forth of new life.
It is not unlike our lives in Christ. There will be time when summer is in full bloom, offering much fruit but there are other times when nothing seems to be happening. We feel like we are in a lull, wondering what our purpose really is or thinking we missed something, maybe letting opportunities go past unanswered. When this happens, let’s remind ourselves that these times have also been ordered by the Lord and that they have an important significance. God is restoring what the cankerworm has eaten. He is pouring new life into us, new revelations, new insights of His wonderful resources. He is teaching us, nurturing us, strengthening us for what He has ordered to come next in our lives. Let us not despise those precious times of what we sometimes think is emptiness.
God has asked us to be still and to know that He is God. How hard is it for us human beings to stay still. Yet, God is asking us here to be still and take the time to learn about Him, about who He is, about His amazing attributes. He wants us to be full to overflowing with the knowledge of His love and grace. Then, will we be able to dispense it to others.
In Psalm 23, it says that He makes us to lie down in green pastures. What a beautiful illustration of what He wants. He makes us, sometimes, forcefully, stopping us dead in our tracks to get our full attention. He forces us to lie down, to rest. Where? A wasted field or rather in green lush pastures. Just imagine sheep in this pasture. They would roll in it and munch on it with delight all day, loving this yummy juicy green grass. What more could we ask for? We are being nourished and allowed to grow fat with what He is pouring into us. That is what a winter season is like for us, not a punishment but a rest in His embrace to be enjoyed.
If you have been a legalist or into rules and regulations like I have, you would have thought you were being punished for something or simply being slack, not performing for God. You would have gone cold. We remember with dread that scripture in Revelation 3:15-16 that had been drummed into us:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth…”
We used to feel condemned and fearful of maybe missing out on heaven because only those who were hot and on fire for God would make it. How wrong that was!
One day, these scriptures were explained properly to me and I have not looked back. Yes, I can be cold. It doesn’t mean I don’t love the Lord and that I failed Him. It simply means that God wants to pour in new revelations into me, new insights on His love, on His plan for me. Like a winter’s field, not much shows on the outside but much is happening on the inside.
It’s like a field left fallow. The farmer decides when and why the field should stay fallow. The weeds that grow regenerate the soil. The ground is resting, absorbing all these nutrients. When the time comes, the farmer will plough the field and plant it. In the same way and in His time, the Lord takes us out of that cold season and He guides us towards the next part of His plan, fully equipped with what He has been depositing during those cold months.
Being lukewarm is something totally different. It refers to mixing covenants. Imagine the tap mixing cold and hot water. It is such an apt description. It is like mixing rules and regulations to the free gift of salvation, adding our works to Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the Cross. Jesus is the One who took away our sin. We cannot add anything to make that more perfect or certain.
In fact, this passage doesn’t refer to our salvation at all. It is addressed to a church. If you read on, you notice that Jesus was standing outside the church knocking on the door. This church had all its plans and programs and didn’t need Jesus nor the Holy Spirit’s help. It didn’t even realise that Jesus was not there! It relied totally on its own strength and attributes, its own self-righteousness. That is indeed a mixture. No wonder Jesus wanted to spue that lukewarmness out!
Now, when it is cold at night, when there is not much in the field, I rejoice. It is a picture of these precious times where the Lord does a work in me. Sometimes, these times are long and I need to be patient. I know! Nobody likes being patient. It is probably one of the hardest things to learn. But it will yield a beautiful harvest, His harvest.
We were in Europe in spring this year. And what a joy that was! I had forgotten how beautiful that season can be with new leaves on the trees, of a tender green almost palatable and all the flowers bursting out everywhere in a symphony of colours. A feast to the eye! The whole of nature is waking up.
His spring does come. Let’s wait for it.