S8 E45: Weathering Winter | SHE IS Awakening Seasonal Journal | WINTER - Week 9

Ready or not, it's a new week, friend.

You know, I remember that saying from childhood games of hide and seek growing up and once ready or not, here I come was declared by your opponent, your only option was to hunker down and to try to stay safe.

You know, kind of sounds similar to weathering a winter season in life. We prepare as much as possible, and once a storm hits, we hunker down and just try to stay safe.

This week's focus is titled, Weathering Winter. And the focus verse is found in Psalm chapter 9, verse 9, and it says,

God's a safe house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times.

You know, as much damage as a brutal winter season can bring, there is a safe place that you and I can enter. And not only is this space safe, it's sacred. And no matter your age or season of life, I'm sure that you are well aware that winter seasons are a part of life.

This means that we should expect them to come and we should be prepared for them when they do come. Now, there are definitely storms that come into our life and they hit quickly.

One day the skies are blue and beautiful and then suddenly things turn dark and a storm that feels like it came out of nowhere brings devastation. Things are severely damaged and destroyed and sometimes left unrecognizable.

Sometimes the storm is still raging around us, and it's easy for us to be fearful of what is happening all around us. That is out of our control.

But your choices are in your control, and those choices are critical for your survival. The most secure place that you can be is under the shelter and the shadow of the Almighty.

You know, that safe house and sanctuary that we just read about in Psalm 9. And that's the place that we survive. It's from this sacred space that we trust and we rest in God's protection.

You know, we might be injured and battered from the storm. I mean, not just physically or our physical things, but our souls, they might have been crushed in the wake of the storm.

And as I know many of you listening have found to be the case, crushing can bring out goodness and beauty that we never even knew existed. Soul-crushing seasons can lead to transformation.

Here are some thoughts and prompts that I would love to invite you to pray and to process through this week?

Do you tend to wimp out in winter seasons instead of bundling up and trusting what the season wants to bring out of you?

Are you entering the safe space that God has provided for you in this season?

Are you afraid and resisting the transformation on the other side of a winter storm?

We should expect winter seasons in our lives as well as expecting the shaping and the transformation that takes place as we walk through and out the other side.

We might be walking out with a limp, but we are walking with a friend. And not only did we survive, but we are thriving.

So let's commit to being prepared and committed to weathering winter seasons from a safe and a sacred space.

I am praying that you feel securely safe and held this week by the God who holds all things.

I love you guys, and we'll talk soon.