Per the calendar, winter lasts three months: This year that is December 21 to March 19. In some regions, however, you will need to stretch those dates . . . quite a bit . . . as winter storms can come as early as October and last until May. Here in Northern California December and January are usually solid winter months, but often spring weather will begin to peek through sometime in February.
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Regardless, winter in all its forms––weather, personal, or spiritual––can be tough, either by its length or its intensity. It is then we must remember that spring will come. God has promised it. God created it.

So even though we have not yet seen the end of one calendar month of winter, some of us might have already had enough and yearn for fairer climes. And even though your own personal or spiritual winter may just be beginning, you might already feel buried under the weight of the emotional drifts. But remember . . . remember . . . spring will come.​

That’s why I love to look back at pictures of warmer times, when trees were leafing out and flowers were blooming. Because when it is bleak outside my home’s walls or inside my personal life, they are reminders of the spring destined to come.

As I work my way through the writings of E.M. Bounds and share some of his thoughts, I am very aware that by not sharing all he wrote, that I could misrepresent what he wrote, so please do not judge his beliefs by my abridged version of his writings. Before you discard his statements, please read the original.

E.M. Bounds wrote almost six hundred pages on prayer, but his basic principles are simple, and his first is “Prayer is simply faith" (13). Faith that God can do what we ask. For if we do not have faith that God

can do what we ask, then what is the point of asking? As Bounds says, “Faith gives birth to prayer . . .” (19).

Fortunately for us, our faith does not have to be very big to gain a foothold. Jesus in Luke 17:6, told his disciples that "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.” Faith, at its tiniest core, begins in the belief that if God so wills, He can do.

But many of us find ourselves in the shoes of the father of the possessed boy who told Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

And God does, for although He will work with our mustard-seed-size faith, His desire is that it take root and grow. Bounds claims that  “faith is increased by exercise, by being put into use. It is nourished by sore trials (21).” The more we need God, the more we turn to Him, the more we see His answers to our prayers.

Bounds further states that “faith . . . grows stronger, strikes deeper, rises higher, in the struggles and wrestlings of mighty petitioning (19).” Prayer is hardest with those things that matter most, when our desires are strong, and our personal investment high. It is then that we experience the “struggles and wrestlings of mighty petitioning.”

Faith also grows through waiting. Bounds says that faith is often asked “to wait in patience before God, and is prepared for God’s seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honored; it takes God at his Word, and lets him take what time he chooses in fulfilling his purposes, and in carrying on his work (15) . . . Faith gathers strength by waiting and praying (15-16).”

So prayer and faith are in a symbiotic relationship. The two grow together.

“Faith grows by reading and meditating on the Word of God. Most, and best of all, faith thrives in an atmosphere of prayer (21).”

“Thus when we contemplate the great importance of prayer, we find faith standing immediately by its side (21).”

So let us not lose heart in our prayers. Let us grow our faith through our prayers and our prayers through our faith, and let us do as Bounds suggests:

“Pray on. Wait on. You cannot fail. If Christ delay, wait for him. In his own good time, he will come, and will not tarry (15).”

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The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer. Barker Books. 1990.

Another list. Another urge to skim read. Another reason not to.

Nehemiah 3 is all about rebuilding the gates and walls of Jerusalem and from verse one to verse 32, it always reads the same: This gate was “repaired by” or “were made by” and then a man or a group of men would be mentioned. Or someone had “laid beams” or “installed” bolts. Well, almost always. Two verses differ in this litany of labor.



The first is verse 5 which reads, “Next were the people of Tekoa, though their leaders refused to work with the construction supervisors” (emphasis mine).

And then right in the middle of the chapter, verse 20, which states: “Next to him was Baruch son of Zabbia, who zealously repaired an additional section from the angle to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest” (emphasis mine).

Three things to note here. First, a lot of people worked on those walls and gates. A lot of them are mentioned by name. A lot of people did their job, willingly and well. However, more important to note are the next two points. First, one group of people received a negative notation. The leaders of the people from Tekoa who refused to cooperate with the building supervisors. Whether they affected their people or the progress of the reconstruction we don’t know. We just know they were a problem.

Third, only one person, Baruch son of Zabbai, receives a commendation.  Baruch zealously repaired. And even more important, Baruch didn’t zealously repair the portion he was assigned. He zealously repaired an additional section.

True we should not work to impress man (Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”), but we should remember that people are watching, and in many cases (like this one) literally taking note.

So as we enter the new year, let us remember we have choices. First let us choose to do our assigned jobs willingly and efficiently. Then let us try hard not​ to be remembered for being uncooperative and difficult, but instead when the opportunity arises, let's be the 2020 version of Baruch son of Zabbia. Let us willingly take on additional work and we do that work with zeal.

Happy New Year!