Grace for the January Slump
Sometimes it's the little things that test you and try you. Like three weeks of flu.
Like a house packed full of fever and people, packed too closely in cold January days.
Like six home schooled kids stuck indoors coughing all over, sick of maybe ... each other?
And the January slump rolls on.
Endless day after endless day of sick. Sick of being cramped indoors. Sick of school.
Sick of sick.
And yet, even in the midst of the desert, He gives streams.
And this past January weekend, January usually so full of cold and snow, spring appeared to warm our aching lungs.
When you just feel like maybe you can't breathe one more broken breath, suddenly warm spring air comes, fills languid lungs. With the cool damp of the melting snow, it comes.
Grace comes to fill our aching empty.
Because even though you may be walking a desert, He still gives streams when you need them.
And He doesn't always take you right out of the desert and into the lush pasture. Sometimes you have to keep stepping through sand for a time. But He still provides. Even in the desert.
And if you're looking, you'll see the grace that He always gives.
"He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
he brought streams out of a rocky crag,
and made water to flow down like rivers.
But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling against the Most High,
They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
They spoke against God saying, 'Can God spread a table in the desert?'
for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance." Psalm 78:16-19, 22
How often do I miss the grace that he gives?
How often do I grumble against the grace, and miss his goodness in my deserts?
The Israelites ate the manna and saw the divine provision and yet they didn't believe God.
Didn't believe that He was trustworthy.
Didn't believe that He was faithful.
Didn't believe that He was enough.
When I grumble in my deserts of sickness and flu and so much minor misery, aren't I saying the same of Him?
Saying He isn't trustworthy, isn't faithful, isn't enough?
But in the midst of the deserts, He always provides streams.
Living Water to flow, like spring flowers under a dreary January sky.
Grace to fill my moments, even the dry ones.
But you can't live grace until you stop and smell the beauty of the grace moments that He gives, bend low and breathe one small delicate petal at a time.
You must just believe, and behold grace. Trust and live grace.
"Believe the promise of God's grace, and believing you shall live in a new world which shall be always wonder-land to you." Charles Spurgeon, God Promises You.
Live wonder.
The Israelites ate the manna, the everyday miracle, and it became commonplace to them. It lost the wonder of the miraculous. They were sustained daily by a miracle food from heaven and yet they refused to trust God, the miracle giver. But it's this trusting, this just plain believing, that is the only path to wonder-land. Trusting that He is good and is working all this for my good (Romans 8:28), this is the path to wonder.
And we, here, have everyday miracles and I want to wonder at them in awe and remember that even in the desert, there are streams. Like daffodils in January.
Suddenly grace springing up where you least expect it.
He doesn't always take us out of the desert, but He always makes the desert full of His graces.
And if you look, you might find the desert is in bloom.
Like a house packed full of fever and people, packed too closely in cold January days.
Like six home schooled kids stuck indoors coughing all over, sick of maybe ... each other?
And the January slump rolls on.
Endless day after endless day of sick. Sick of being cramped indoors. Sick of school.
Sick of sick.
And yet, even in the midst of the desert, He gives streams.
And this past January weekend, January usually so full of cold and snow, spring appeared to warm our aching lungs.
When you just feel like maybe you can't breathe one more broken breath, suddenly warm spring air comes, fills languid lungs. With the cool damp of the melting snow, it comes.
Grace comes to fill our aching empty.
Because even though you may be walking a desert, He still gives streams when you need them.
And He doesn't always take you right out of the desert and into the lush pasture. Sometimes you have to keep stepping through sand for a time. But He still provides. Even in the desert.
And if you're looking, you'll see the grace that He always gives.
"He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
he brought streams out of a rocky crag,
and made water to flow down like rivers.
But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling against the Most High,
They willfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
They spoke against God saying, 'Can God spread a table in the desert?'
for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance." Psalm 78:16-19, 22
How often do I miss the grace that he gives?
How often do I grumble against the grace, and miss his goodness in my deserts?
The Israelites ate the manna and saw the divine provision and yet they didn't believe God.
Didn't believe that He was trustworthy.
Didn't believe that He was faithful.
Didn't believe that He was enough.
When I grumble in my deserts of sickness and flu and so much minor misery, aren't I saying the same of Him?
Saying He isn't trustworthy, isn't faithful, isn't enough?
But in the midst of the deserts, He always provides streams.
Living Water to flow, like spring flowers under a dreary January sky.
Grace to fill my moments, even the dry ones.
But you can't live grace until you stop and smell the beauty of the grace moments that He gives, bend low and breathe one small delicate petal at a time.
You must just believe, and behold grace. Trust and live grace.
"Believe the promise of God's grace, and believing you shall live in a new world which shall be always wonder-land to you." Charles Spurgeon, God Promises You.
Live wonder.
The Israelites ate the manna, the everyday miracle, and it became commonplace to them. It lost the wonder of the miraculous. They were sustained daily by a miracle food from heaven and yet they refused to trust God, the miracle giver. But it's this trusting, this just plain believing, that is the only path to wonder-land. Trusting that He is good and is working all this for my good (Romans 8:28), this is the path to wonder.
And we, here, have everyday miracles and I want to wonder at them in awe and remember that even in the desert, there are streams. Like daffodils in January.
Suddenly grace springing up where you least expect it.
He doesn't always take us out of the desert, but He always makes the desert full of His graces.
And if you look, you might find the desert is in bloom.
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