A Spiritual Spring

Song of Songs 2:12

The season of spring is welcome in its freshness. The long and dreary winter helps us to appreciate spring's genial warmth, and its promise of summer enhances its present delights. After periods of spiritual depression, it is delightful to see again the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Our slumbering graces rise from their lethargy, like the crocus and the daffodil from their beds of earth; and our heart is made glad with delicious notes of gratitude, far more tuneful than the warbling of birds. The comforting assurance of peace, which is infinitely more delightful than the turtledove's cooing, is heard within the soul.

This is the time for the soul to seek communion with her Beloved; now she must rise from her natural sordidness and come away from her old associations. If we do not hoist the sail when the breeze is favorable, we make a grave mistake: Times of refreshing should never be allowed to pass us by. When Jesus Himself visits us in tenderness and entreats us to arise, can we be so ungrateful as to refuse His request? He has risen so that He may draw us after Him. He, by His Holy Spirit, has revived us so that we may in newness of life ascend to the heavenlies and enjoy fellowship with Him. We bid farewell to the coldness and indifference of a spiritual winter when the Lord creates a spring within. Then our sap flows with vigor, and our branches blossom with high resolve.

O Lord, if it is not springtime in my chilly heart, I pray You make it so, for I am tired of living at a distance from You. When will You bring this long and dreary winter to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my soul! Quicken me, restore me, and have mercy on me! This very night I earnestly implore you, Lord, to take pity upon Your servant and send me a happy revival of spiritual life!











 

HOW TO ACTIVATE GOD'S WORD.

..if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.’ 1 John 5:14 NIV

While you are waiting for God’s Word to be fulfilled in your life, do these three
things:

(1) Verbalise it. The most effective way to pray is to speak God’s Word. The patriarchs, prophets and psalmists regularly reminded God of His promises in prayer, confident He would keep them. The surest indicator of God’s will is His Word. ‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us…we know that we have what we asked of Him.‘ (1 John 5:14-15 NIV) God always responds to His Word, always!

(2) Obey it. God’s plan for us is not just to speak His Word, vital as this is, but that we obey it (James 1:22). The hymn-writer said: ‘When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way; while we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.’ Obedience – faith in action – aligns us with God and He responds by fulfilling His promise to us.

(3) Share it. Parents and grandparents, ‘Take to heart these words that I give you today. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up.’ (Deuteronomy 6:6-7 GWT) You needn’t be a qualified teacher, just a sincere teller. Sharing God’s Word will produce fruit in the lives of your family, friends, relatives, business associates and neighbours, and also increase your own grasp and understanding of it.

SoulFood: Judges 7:1-9:33, Matt 12:15-21, Ps 129, Prov 13:9-10