There’s a trail near my home that has quickly become one of my favorite haunts. Sometimes I go alone; other times I take my kids and we explore. Over the last several months, the trail has been flanked with large snow piles, bare trees, and frozen creeks. There haven’t been birds or any sign of life. Besides the evergreens, the rest of the woods appears to be dead and fruitless.

And yet.

And yet, there is life underneath the surface. Beyond what my eyes can see, all those brown, dead-looking trees are pumping with life. Once the weather turns warm, the trail will burst with green. What once looked dead and barren will be full of visible life.

 

Sometimes our souls seem to be in a winter season.

Maybe you’ve been heavily involved in a specific ministry that, for one reason or another, isn’t a part of your life anymore. Perhaps you’re in a season where everything looks dead and you can’t see visible growth. What should you do if it feels like winter in your soul?

Here are 3 habits to cultivate during winter seasons:

 

Abide in Christ.

“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

Jesus goes on in that passage to describe a specific way we can abide in him, and that is by allowing his words to abide in us.

What does that word “abide” mean?
“to continue in a place” (via)
Dwell.
Live and make a home in.
Be comfortable with.

What are you doing to welcome God’s Word into your mind and heart? How are you giving his Word a rich dwelling inside the depths of your soul?

>>> Take Action <<<
Consider your heart in light of God’s Word.
Are you daily allowing his words to affect your thoughts, words, and actions?
What might you do to increase his influence on your soul?

 

Look for fruit.

As believers in Christ, the Father is always at work in our hearts. This means he is always working to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life. So be on the lookout for his work in your heart! Maybe you’ll see it in a place you didn’t expect. Perhaps he’s increasing your gratitude and joy despite painful circumstances. Or maybe he’s cultivating the fruits of joy and longsuffering through the ministry of a difficult relationship.

If you are a child of God, you can have confidence that the Spirit is at work to produce his fruit in your life. Look for evidence of his work in your thoughts, responses, and actions. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

>>> Take Action <<<
Ask God to encourage your heart by allowing you to see the way he’s working in your life. 

 

Trust the gardener of your soul.

Psalm 1 describes the blessed man as a growing organism: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither” (Psalm 1:3).

The Lord is the gardener of your soul. If you are his child, he’s given you his Spirit to work in your heart and change you to be like Jesus. Maybe you’re frustrated because you think your spiritual growth should look different than it does. Maybe you think your progress should look like someone else’s results. But God is at work in each of us in a unique way, specific to our unique needs. We can trust him to tend the soil of our surrendered hearts and produce fruit in his timing.

>>> Take Action <<<
Thank God for the work he is doing in your life.
Ask him to help you trust that he is at work, even when it appears to be winter in your soul.