Hidden in Christ this Wintry Season
I’m ashamed to say that on this Tuesday night my sink is full of dishes. That I didn’t really want to shower. Or that I did not even want to close the chicken coop door to protect my hens from our nightly predators.
But if I am being honest with you, my sink with dishes left over from dinner this evening, reveals my mind.
Overcrowded.
No room. No room in my mind to focus on the Lord and no room in my heart to hear and receive from the Lord.
Did I know it? Nope. But I knew something was off. I felt it.
My mind was too cluttered to focus on to today’s reading. Maybe you felt this a time or two. Trying to read your daily reading only to hear “this needs to be done, oh and this, oh and don’t forget about this, oh and lets start to get it all done with, etc.”
But this… it shows how busy the season can be. How little room can be left, or no room at all, in our hearts and minds.
All the crackles and pops, Christmas decor and presents needing to be found, restaurants and streets are busy like never before. Stores jammed packed all to decorate their home and galore. Here we are running around with more on our minds and hearts with no clear direction or focus.
What are we to do in this “busy” wintry season? It’s simple. We are to slow down and embrace the Savior and all in whom He is.
But how can we embrace him, enjoy him, be in him and him in us when we are too busy and jammed packed with to-do lists and decor calling our names?
How can we hear from our Savior when so many other voices are screaming our names?
How can we enjoy our Savior when we are too busy “enjoying” other things instead?
It breaks my heart to type this, admit this, and to even see many wandering these streets, these places, empty from our Lord yet filled with tasks and to-do things.
But no judgment there sister, just pure honesty from someone who struggled too.
Yes, my sink may be full from today’s dinner. But I was able to enjoy a movie, The Star, on the couch, cuddled with my 5 year old and husband. I was able to pause for these moments to see one of our twins getting up on all fours ready to take off and crawl. A milestone we’ve been working on with his therapists, which will soon pay off.
But in this moment, I do have to admit, I have seen prior and even recently, how my heart and mind had been full of clutter. Full of what does not need to be residing. I had seen, all that the Lord wanted from me was me. No added agenda. No added stuff. No added fancy bible or fancy highlighters. Just me. All of me.
Oh how we forget to make room in our hearts and in our minds for our Savior Jesus Christ. We make room for dinner to eat. We make room for what matters to us in those moments. Why not make room for what truly and eternally matters to us? Jesus!
What if now, you join me for the rest of this month, to truly rest in Him. No I am not talking about sitting back and being lazy being a couch potato, but having the true rest that comes from Him. No added decor. No baskets full of things that’s not needed. No more losing sight to the things in this world where the world, the enemy, wants us caught off guard but rather, embracing and being hidden in the Lord.
To truly rest in Him is to say no to what is not important. Say no to what the Lord tells you to say no too, and to say yes to what he tells you to say yes too.
Learn to truly see in this wintry season that even the good things truly aren’t good for us if God did not call us to it.
Learn to embrace our Lord by being with Him, intentionally, this wintry season.
The same way we are intentional with friendship calls and texts, or with our spouse, sports, or with the things that matter to us… be more intentional with the One who Truly matters. Jesus.
This is what December is all about. Scratch that. It isn’t about December at all! This is what the whole season is about. This wintry season, to pause and reflect, and to make room for Christ. Because come spring… we bloom what we planted and cultivated in our hearts and minds in the wintry season.
It isn’t about the gifts. It isn’t about the decor. Heck, it even isn’t about how perfect you look being put all together. What it truly is about is the inside.. the inside of our hearts and minds.
This should be for all Christ followers. Having daily heart checks, asking the Lord if there are any idols, or any stacks of riches we are hiding and placing away here in this world where we should actually be stacking and growing more in the Lord. We should really be saying in this season, “Lord less of me and more of you! Make room in my heart and mind so I can grow more in you.”
This season was never meant to take our eyes off Jesus but rather, all for Jesus. The wintry season does have something to bring and indeed has a purpose. Have you ever stopped to think of certain animals who hibernate for the winter? In the fall the Lord began to reveal to me something new. The same way animals hibernate being hidden and snuggled away in this time so come spring, they are ready for the new adventure to embark on, so are we to do the same. Of course not hiding in our home, not eating and just sleeping away. Stick with me here friend. But truly getting ourselves hidden in Him by allowing Him to prune strip and getting our lives, hearts and minds in order to align with his.
How amazing would it be for us all to see our lives in such a way. Hibernating ourselves in the Lord this wintry season, allowing Him to make room in our hearts for more of Him and less of ourselves, allowing Him to remove whatever that is in us that doesn’t reflect Christ. This is what its about my friend.
Not about the festivities, matching pajama outfits or the debt that is being accumulated all because someone said gifts are absolutely needed and we must go overboard and get them all. Not because our culture has adopted the lie to follow the paganism of Christmas. Rather, this season was never about us or even about Christmas in general. It is about getting ourselves anchored in Him, preparing our hearts for Him, making room for Him, and hibernating in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hibernation is anchoring our hearts to the One.
Hibernation is allowing the deep work Jesus wants to do in us in the winter season to bear the fruit of what He did come Spring.
Hibernation is feasting on the Word of God.
Hibernation is allowing the loud voices to be turned off so His can become more evident.
Hibernation is magnifying the Lord when the pagan culture is magnifying other idols.
Hibernation is the deep intimacy you build and establish with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hibernation is soul wrecking and working.
Hibernation is the one place every human is longing for, the crave of a deep love and hearing from the Lord.
Hibernation is clearing the mind and heart of clutter to have solid place for the Lord.
Hibernation is a much clearer and quieter place of knowing His voice more.
Hibernation is building your foundation on the One, Jesus Christ.
It isn’t about the decor or the traditional caroling. It even isn’t about the ugly sweater contests and all the other things that get in the way. It’s about Jesus and what He wants to do deep in us, in the secret hidden place. The place where He helps us grow in maturity so come spring, we are able to come out of the hibernation in full bloom like a flower who was deeply hidden in the wintry season. We become the flower who springs forth come the season of Spring. A flower ready because she, that lovely flower, stayed deeply hidden, establishing her roots in the soil.
And friend, may we be just that. The seed, getting enriched in the soil of Jesus Christ, our roots establishing in the ground (anchoring deeply in the Lord), waiting for spring when the Lord finally calls out and says to us, “now is the time to spring forth and bloom who I helped you become in the wintry season.”
Who we want to be come spring, we must embrace this wintry season by hibernating in our Lord Jesus Christ and removing what He tells us to remove. Being hidden in His Word and presence, and awaiting His wonderful presence every day we wake up.
What a joy it is to have Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. What a joy it is to have our Savior closely with us in this hibernation as we make room for more of Him and less of us this wintry season.
“Abba Father, help us to not lose sight of you but to stay and remain close to you. If at any time we wander off, as sheep tend to do, I ask that we hear your voice when you call us. I pray Abba Father that in this wintry season, prune what needs to go and make room in our hearts for more of your Son, Jesus. We want you Jesus, and all of you. Make us less like ourselves and more like you. In this wintry season, grant us a spirit of obedience to obey you at your Word. Give us the strength and audacity to say no to whatever you tell us to say no in. Give us the courage to say yes in what you tell us to say yes in, and help us to embrace more of you this wintry season. I pray that each sister who reads this, may you show her how to hibernate in you this wintry season and may you show her how to embark in you this wintry season. I pray that you shut off and cancel out any and all voices that led her away from you and grant her discernment to know whether it is from you or not. May this wintry season be a season of hiding, of growing, of establishing her roots deep within the soil you have planted in her heart and may it grow bountifully come spring. I pray Father, that no weapon formed against us from becoming more like you will prosper but rather, your Word, the very alive and active Word you give us, will guide, teach, train, equip, rebuke, establish us in You. We glorify your name and we thank you. We love you. In Jesus name, amen.”
Verses to Ponder on:
Isaiah 9:6 | “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jeremiah 33:3 | “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”
Hosea 2:14 | “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 | “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.”
Colossians 3:1-17 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your[a] life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you:[b] sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.[c] 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self[d] with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,[e] free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”