PRESS ON: FINDING GOD WHEN YOU’RE NOT “FEELING IT”

Winter Seasons Require Perseverance

"Guess I better add hot chocolate," I mumbled, scribbling "HC" on my grocery list. 

No need to spell it out. Winter had overstayed its welcome; more warmth was needed to make it through. 

The calendar said "Spring," but I wasn't feeling it. Arctic wind blasted my face before I reached the store's shelter.

Couldn’t turn back now; I was almost there.

A few more strides and the automatic door slid wide open to greet me like the sun suddenly bursting through the clouds.

“Well, hallelujah!” I said. When you survive enough winters, you learn to praise God anyway.

Humming a little praise diddy moving down the aisles, hope started to heap up like the canned goods in my cart.

What was one more brisk day when the sun was shining?

Spring was on the way.

Before I knew it, I was unloading my enthusiasm onto the conveyor belt and the unsuspecting cashier.

"Isn't it a GLORIOUS day?" With Holy Spirit beams practically shooting out of my fingers, I point out the glass doors to the obvious.

"Yeah," she sighed,  "Wish I could feel it."

She was stuck in the shadows, only steps away from the new season dawning, but she wasn't alone.

We've all been there, so close and yet so far.

Because life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, even when we love Jesus with all our hearts. 

Winter seasons pummel us and try to turn our tender hearts to ice. 

So, God’s Word says to keep on moving.

Like that cashier standing just steps from the sunshine, the prophet Hosea saw God’s hope in the distance. Despite all the icy rejections he woke up to every morning, he stayed the course.

How did he keep moving forward when he wasn't "feelin' it?"

He knew God doesn't change like the seasons. When you're stuck in a bone-chilling valley, His face still shines on you.

Hosea said to know God more intimately, you must press in and press on one tenacious step at a time.

"Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hos 6:3)

We walk by faith, not feeling. 

Feelings may be all over the map, but God charts His course for you by His steadfast divine love.

Even if you're not "feeling it" today, keep going.

Keep kneeling down, leaning in, looking up, opening your hands and your heart before the Lord. 

Keep believing His Word is true.

As surely as the spring sun rises, winter will melt away, and you'll feel Him again.