Do you feel it? A little numb, a lot cold, mostly dormant. Long nights with long darkness. Another rotation doing the same old thing, wondering when something will finally give. The dead of winter.

Don’t lose heart, my friend. The darkness is long right now, but the light is coming. The winter season seems bleak and lifeless, but life is about to break out. In Christ, life springs out of death. It is His way.

Wherever you feel numb, cold, hardened, open up to the Light and let Him speak life into you again. Let the waves of His Spirit hit your heart with truth. Let His words sink down deep into the soil of your being. Think about His words, His ways, His nature and be amazed at the little tendrils of life springing up in you. He is not afraid of ashes or hard places or numbness—no, it is His specialty to call life out of death. He makes all things new—again, and again, and again—even you.

He is the great and mighty God who spoke light and planets and creatures into existence. He is the ultimate Source who breathed life into man in the beginning, and who continues to animate us with His fullness, by the breath of His Spirit. Let Him breathe on you today. Let dormant hopes and dreams awaken in you today in Jesus’ name. Trade in your ashes for the beauty He offers, and your heaviness for a garment of praise.

Start praising God for His goodness—even if you can’t see it right now. Praise Him because He IS good, and praise Him for the goodness He will show you as you walk with Him into the future. Praise Him that He is Life and Light and Source. Praise Him that He is near and connected and personal.

Death could not hold Him, and He is not afraid of the dead places in your heart. Receive His breath of Life and the very personal words He has for you today.