In the Stillness

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s celebrations are over. The hustle and bustle of the world begins to slow down for Winter. It was a weird feeling after having people around, my husband home from work, and the granddog we were dog-sitting ready to greet me first thing in the morning, suddenly not around.

Quiet sets in, and I am alone again.

Now, let me be clear: I need some of that aloneness. I need breaks in the middle of the chaos and people all around, and I am not good if I don’t get those breaks, but then I am ready to get into it all again.

Winter is a very unsettling season. The sun is rare, which is difficult for me. The days on end of grey, wet, or dreary skies do not help me to stay in a good place mentally. I need light, sun, and friends. But here we are again.

As I have prayed for God’s direction this year, He speaks to my heart and prepares me for a quiet Winter. A Winter of Stillness. A winter for filling, writing, and most importantly, time in His presence, at His feet where Mary sat amongst the chaos and the things that needed to be done.

He just needs me to surrender to the stillness.

Are you one who dreads the Winter? Do you dread the snow, the rain, and the grey skies? Do you dread the cabin fever, aloneness, and sometimes seasonal depression that comes from this Winter season? Do you struggle with the feeling of deadness both physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually?

I am confessing here that I do, and because I have battled depression over my life, I tend to go into preventive and protective mode and overbook my calendar so that I somehow don’t end up there, but what if that isn’t what I need this time?

So when God says we are going to be a little quieter, a little slower, a little more still this Winter, I begin to panic!

How will I survive this?

I see Him reach out His hand and hear Him ask me, “Do you trust me”?

As I have shared on some of my social media posts recently, He is looking for a full surrender and complete trust from me and us.

I was reading through my book, Created to Relate: Living Beyond Religion, again recently, and I was in chapter six. It is amazing how God uses the words we write as authors to speak to our own hearts over and over again.

On page 67, it says, “Why are we afraid of not having many things to do? Why do we allow this to define our worth? Religion says that we need to do and then be. A Relationship with Jesus says that the doing will come out of the being. I needed to regroup with the Lord. I needed to seek Him for what the next season would look like at home and church. He was telling me to rest, to be still and know Him better: “Be still and know I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10 ESV). In the stillness and the being, God meets us. Will we slow down long enough to meet Him there? It is in the stillness that He exposes the lies. It is in the stillness that healing comes.

Looking back, it shows me this has always been a struggle for me. Being still and resting in Him are not easy for me to do. It also shows me God’s faithfulness. I see growth, less rebelliousness to keep moving, just another act of dying to the flesh that has fears attached to stillness, fears of drowning in depression, fears of being alone.

But I believe He wants to show us we are not alone. He wants us to believe that having Him alone is enough. He wants us to know our worth is only and solely attached to Him.

So, I will walk into this winter, and instead of dreading the season, I will look forward to experiencing Jesus in a deeper way. I will appreciate the quiet moments, returning to my first love, Him, and the writing. I will still be present, blogging here, posting on social media, YouTube videos, and podcasts, but I will also be doing much more filling, reading His Word, studying, and praying. I believe He is preparing for something, and I am excited to watch it bloom.

How can you walk into this Winter season? Will you dread the things you usually experience or the fears of what may come or happen in it? Or will you go in with the expectation of who God will be in this season and what He will do? I pray God fills your heart with peace and expectancy and that He surprises you all the way through this season.

We can do this together! Let’s be encouragers to one another, spurring each other on toward Christ Jesus! Let’s be cheerleaders for one another instead of competitors or ones who compare and let’s share with one another what God is doing in and through us in the season.

Feel free to leave comments here or on the social media sites. Please share any ways we can be praying for you. We would love to hear praise reports of how God has been working in your life or answered prayers. Let’s build a community here that walks together with Jesus!!