Bethel Church Stonehouse

Springtime in your heart

       At this time of year you don’t need to be a gardener to know that things are budding; new life is breaking out all around us. God has set springtime as a season of new growth and new birth in nature.

     It always makes me think of some things that may need to be bursting into new growth in my own spiritual life. Strangely, we seem to have a different thought pattern when it comes to spiritual new growth - we seem more concerned to keep things the same.

     I’m not sure why we think this, but it’s obvious to us that autumn sees the death of last year’s growth to make way for this year’s new growth.  Why is it then that we seem to have this obsession with keeping things the way they always were in church, and often even in our spiritual lives?  We don’t do it in our homes - all of us will probably do some decorating, throwing out, or reorganising this year. We don’t do it in our gardens - you will have cleared the leaves away, and you will dig that border and plant new flowers.  And, you won’t wear the same clothes you wore last year, and the year before - you’ll get some new.  

     In scripture God always moves on.  He is always relevant, and always already working on the future.  “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord…”.  Jesus had to explain in Matthew 22:32, that God is, ‘…the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ … the God of the living, not the dead.” God is the God of New Birth and creation. 

So my challenge to you is this…

·         What needs to be bursting into life in our spiritual lives?

·         What new things need to cleared out and left behind?

·         Are we ready for God to do New Things – even if that makes us a little uncomfortable?

Believe me, staying the same, or ‘doing what we have always done’ is not the way forward, it’s the way back. Growth and change is the only way for God’s church.  The foundation is the only thing that must not change - the message of the word of God and Jesus Christ as Lord.  And even in this we must be ready to present it in a way that is relevant to our generation.

Let me encourage you to take some new spiritual steps this year. Make some plans to grow in your spiritual life. Get some springtime in your heart where new things burst into life.

Let’s make sure that we are not 20^th Century Christians in a 20^th Century church while living in the 21^st Century.  I can assure you God is a 21^st Century God!   It’s not only the times we need to keep up with – it’s God.

So this year plant some new seeds and let’s do some growing in God together!