After the hot endless summer we've had I long for cooler weather but it's slow in coming. I feel like the flowers in my garden that are drying, parched, and spindly, ready for a change. Having weathered a difficult time, they are looking with longing to a new phase of rest and renewal. I can relate to these words of Charles Spurgeon:
"Though we have brought forth some fruit unto Christ, and have a joyful hope that we are "plants of His own right hand planting", yet there are times when we feel very barren. Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers in the hot sun, requiring the refreshing shower."
What does Spurgeon say is the remedy for feeling like this? "Sing, believer, for it will cheer thine own heart, and the hearts of other desolate ones. Sing on, for now that thou art really ashamed of being barren, thou will be fruitful soon; now that God makes thee loath to be without fruit He will soon cover thee with clusters. The experience of barrenness is painful, but the Lord's visitations are delightful. A sense of our own poverty drives us to Christ, and that is where we need to be, for in Him is our fruit found."
That's what I need to remember. In Jesus is my fruit found. My times of abundance, my times of blessing, my times of refreshment, my times of harvest are found in Him. Just as surely as the appointed time for autumn comes faithfully each year, so my times of renewal follow my times of barrenness. I just need to look to Him with hope and expectation and He will never disappoint.
"Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you", Isaiah 12:1-6. NIV
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