Give me eyes to see the beauty even in my winter season. I pray You would use the season You have me in to transform me and strengthen my faith in You. Thank You for Your love for me and for changing my heart to reflect Yours. Your grace is sufficient for me, and I thank You for always guiding me into truth and convicting my heart when I fall into the sins of grumbling and complaining, thinking that I know better than You. I know I need to trust in Your sovereignty and lean upon Your ways over my own. Teach me how to find ways to praise You when my expectations are not met and learn how to trust Your perfect timing even if I don’t fully understand it. Help me to look for the blessings you have already given me in my current circumstances. Help me to guard my heart against discouragement, ungratefulness, and complaining. I am struggling with disappointment and discontentment about where I am in life right now. Do you feel like you are stuck in a “winter” season, longing to see blooms of new life? We often fail to acknowledge He may be using difficulties to work well in our lives and turn it all into something beautiful. It can be tempting to grasp for control to avoid discomfort before asking the Lord for His help. Our hearts were made to look to the hope of eternity, but if we are not careful, we can be consumed with worry when things are not changing as quickly as we would like them to or when our circumstances in our life are challenging or uncomfortable. Perhaps this process of renewing our minds and seeing transformation in behavior and attitude is slowed because our eyes become too fixated on the temporal cares of this life. He leads us into all truth as we study the Word and renew our minds to replace old ways of thinking with God’s perfect will. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in obedience. The process of conforming us to the image of His dear Son rests solely in His hands as we lean not on our understanding, but trust completely in Him and His ways ( Proverbs 3:5-6). Often, we become extremely discouraged by disappointment or failure, but God is continually working in our hearts and our lives. The verse goes on to say God “has also set eternity in the human heart yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” ( Ecclesiastes 11b, NIV). Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes focuses on the concept of time in the heart of man, and that God is ultimately sovereign over it: “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (11a). In this book, Solomon discusses the ebb and flow of life: time, foolishness, suffering, and wisdom are poetically unwrapped throughout this Old Testament book. The Biblical Book of Ecclesiastes was written by one of the wisest men to live, King Solomon. In God’s perfecting timing, we will begin to see new growth. Like the seasons, the change of life for the glory of Christ is a process. Life transformation is not an overnight event. He alone knows how to take a rebellious heart of stone and soften it to praise His Holy name. The seasons are set to a specific time God ordains, as are the events in our lives and the journey He unfolds along the way. None of us must worry if the seasons are going to change, because God is a master artist and has it all under control. Soon, the fresh leaves will fully cover what were barren branches and flowers will be in full bloom. I remember waiting for Spring to come with great expectations, but by January would grow extremely impatient, ready to pack our family and move somewhere warmer! Honestly, winter was one of the driving forces behind our family’s permanent relocation to the Sunshine State! Many of my friends and family are currently longing for the warmer temperatures of Spring to make their appearance. We would experience all four seasons, but winter seemed to drag on the longest. I lived in the Midwest of the United States until two years ago. He has also set eternity in the human heart yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end” ( Ecclesiastes 3:11-12, NIV). “He has made everything beautiful in its time. A Prayer to Embrace Beauty in the Present
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