December 1, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Thou hast made summer and winter." — Psalm 74:17 · KJV

My soul, begin this wintry month with your God. The cold snows and the piercing winds all remind you that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and assure you that He will also keep that glorious covenant He has made with you in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to His word in the turning of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted world will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own well-beloved Son. Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season, and if it is on you just now, it will be very painful to you; but there is this comfort — the Lord makes it. He sends the sharp blasts of adversity to nip the buds of expectation; He scatters the hoarfrost like ashes over the once green meadows of our joy; He casts forth His ice like morsels, freezing the streams of our delight. He does it all; He is the great Winter King, and rules in the realms of frost, and therefore you cannot murmur. Losses, crosses, heaviness, sickness, poverty, and a thousand other ills are of the Lord's sending, and come to us with wise design. Frosts kill noxious insects, and set a bound to raging diseases; they break up the clods and sweeten the soil. Oh, that such good results might always follow our winters of affliction! How we prize the fire just now — how pleasant its cheerful glow! Let us in the same way prize our Lord, who is the constant source of warmth and comfort in every time of trouble. Let us draw near to Him, and in Him find joy and peace in believing. Let us wrap ourselves in the warm garments of His promises, and go forth to labors that befit the season; for it would be ill to be like the sluggard, who will not plow because of the cold, for he shall beg in harvest and have nothing.