Summer is finally here! It is such an amazing time of year! We look forward to it all year long!
Some people love summer so much they move to experience it year round. We hate those people in New York and doubt whether they are really Christians if they’re not willing to endure suffering. (Of course I’m only slightly kidding 🙂 )
Summer is all about forgetting.
We forget our worries. We forget our responsibilities and go on a vacation. We forget that winter was ever a season.
Somewhere around July I find it hard to imagine everything was covered in 18” of snow on the ground. It just doesn’t seem possible with shorts on and the AC blasting.
We also tend to forget the things we promised ourselves in winter. “When summer gets here I’m going for a walk every day on my lunch break.” “I’m going to leave work on time every day so I can soak up the sunshine.” “We are going to ride bikes every night after dinner.” “I’m going to get up a little earlier to enjoy a cup of coffee while I watch my bird feeder.”
I promised myself during winter that I was going to go fishing every Friday. Guess how many Fridays I’ve been? Once and it was back in April!
Not only do we forget the promises we made to ourselves, we tend to forget the promises we made to God.
Summer is the season of the soul we are most likely to forget God.
In the winter season of the soul we are face to face with our need for God. We are praying every minute. We are desperate for God to show up and help. We need a miracle!
Summer is different. The crisis is over, the storm has passed, the snow has melted and it feels like a distant memory. It feels like someone else lived through those challenging days. We don’t think about God as much because everything is great. The sun is shining. We are living in abundance and we quickly forget God.
This isn’t just a theory. You can see it played out physically in every church in America during the summer months. During the summer months the attendance takes a nose dive, but when fall rolls around attendance picks up again and it’s on a steady climb through winter all the way until Easter or spring.
It’s easy not to prioritize God during the physical and spiritual season of summer.
Have there been any promises you made to God in “winter” that you’ve forgotten?
God, if you get me out of this relationship I’ll never get into one like that again.
God, if you help me out of this financial jam I promise I’ll tithe for the rest of my life.
God, if you will just help us get pregnant I promise we will take this child to church.
God, if you allow me to get married again I won’t make the same mistakes.
God, if you’ll heal me I’ll sign up to serve every week.
God, if you help us get that house, I promise to host a Growth Group.
It’s easy to forget the promises we made in winter during the summer months. Everything seemed so much clearer in the winter. There weren’t so many leaves blocking our view of what was important. Now we are in summer and it’s harder to tell what is truly important.
We can be a forgetful people. It’s one of the reasons why we gather with other Christians every week to refocus our hearts and minds on Christ at church. If we didn’t it’s easy to forget God.
It’s why Jesus gave us Communion…to do this in remembrance of the sacrifice He made for us on the cross.
There is an interesting passage in an Old Testament book called Deuteronomy. In chapter 8 it records for us something Moses tells Israel as they are about to move out of winter and into a summer season. He is concerned about them forgetting.
10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful!
Sounds like that could be us. When the stock market is up, when you have a nice home to live in—Be careful that you don’t forget God!
14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’
I’ve heard plenty of people say this very thing. “God didn’t do this I did this. I built my business. God didn’t knock on doors. God didn’t put in the late nights. I did.” or “I worked my way through school.”
Yes, you did do all of those things…it’s what God wanted you to do. But where did the raw ingredients come from? Why did the right person at the right time come across your path and give you a shot? How did you land that first client when they should have never signed with you? How did you get that scholarship when they easily could have said no? Where did your health, drive, or talent come from? Why were you born in this country and not another one without the opportunities you have here?
All of it is God’s grace to you. Don’t become prideful. Don’t forget. Sometimes we have to go through a winter season to remind us of this. Sometimes we get too big for our britches. A wise Christian always bows their head and thanks God for His goodness. A wise Christian always recognizes that everything in life is a gift from God.
18 Remember the Lord your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
How not to forget God during “summer”
Prayer.
Your prayers should include lots of thank you’s. God, thank you that I woke up this morning. Thank you that my kids woke up. Thank you that I have a job to go to. Thank you I have a car that starts. We have lots to thank God for before we ever ask for anything. Gratitude reminds us where all the good things of summer come from.
Giving.
We give back 10% to God of what He has entrusted to us. Every time we get paid it’s the first check we write. We don’t give to keep our church going, we give to keep our heart going in the right direction.The natural pull of our hearts is to think it’s our money. We did this. We built this.
Ironically, the hardest time for people to be generous is when they are in a summer season. It’s strange because they are experiencing a season of plenty.
If we’re not careful we can believe we actually deserve everything we have. If you find yourself saying you deserve everything you have…a warning light should go off because something is wrong in your heart.
Time.
You take time out of your schedule to worship God with your church family. It’s the height of arrogance to say something is more important than worshipping God. “God can wait I have this more important thing going on.” No one in a winter season would ever say that. They are desperate to hear from God and meet Him. We orient our life around God not God around our lives.
Prayer, giving, and time all boil down to humility…something that is in short supply during summer. We humble ourselves so God doesn’t have to. Jesus said, “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
If you want the season of summer to last longer in your soul don’t forget God. Remember it’s God who gives you the power to be successful. Gratitude isn’t a feeling it’s an action…like prayer, giving, and worship. You can start this Sunday!
