Christians experiencing a spiritual winter often feel abandoned by God. However, He is always with us!
Mark Buchanan joins Susie to discuss three keys to making the most of a spiritual winter.
Prayer
As Christians, we pray with ease when our lives are going well. However, when we hit hard times, we sever our connection to God by neglecting our prayer life.
Mark’s wife was one of those Christians. She thought to herself, “What use is prayer anyway?” However, a close friend challenged her to pray in faith during her difficult season and things started to change.
“What emerged is a woman whose prayer life is so rich because it’s not dependent on circumstances.”
Mark’s wife prayed even when she did not feel God’s presence, trusting that He was there.
“We are not simply praying because everything is going well, but we’re praying in this confidence in the character of God that we are not experiencing right now.”
Pruning
Spiritual winter is not a time to get busy. When we encounter this season, we should look to eliminate things that clutter our schedules and distract us from what’s important.
“Do an inventory of things you have been doing in your life that at one point had fruitfulness to them, but now it’s just busy work.”
Waiting
Fostering the discipline to wait patiently on God is part of the DNA of the Christian.
“Simply pull up a concordance and look at how many references there are to both perseverance and waiting in Scripture.”
When God makes us wait for something, it is not meaningless. God is preparing you for what He has in store.
“Something happens in the waiting that cannot happen if things come to us too fast.”
When we find ourselves in a waiting season, it is an open invitation from God to cultivate deeper intimacy with Him.
“…but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:31
Mark unpacks the rest of the seasons in his book, .
Key Scriptures: Romans 8:16; Psalm 88; Hosea 2:14
Featured Songs: Not For a Moment by Meredith Andrews; Oceans by Hillsong United; Spirit of the Living God by Meredith Andrews, Vertical Church Band
