I have been enjoying the fruits of our summer garden all winter long. Virginia canned green beans and put up corn and okra, peas, and tomatoes. We call it storing up for the winter. More important than storing up food for the winter is storing up emotional and spiritual sustenance for winter days. Winter does come and all of us will face the dark, depressing, daunting cold days of winter. How we handle those days will be determined by the spiritual and emotional reserves. The treasures of earth don’t do you much good when you are grieving, guilt-ridden, depressed, stressed, ashamed, or brokenhearted. It’s the treasures of heaven that sustain you – faith, hope, love, the goodness and mercy and strength of God. You store up treasures of heaven as you develop a close relationship with Jesus. You develop that relationship through prayer, worship, serving, study of God’s word, and friendships with Christian brothers and sisters. And the more you do those things, the more you store something in the cellar of your soul so that when winter comes you don’t have to rush out at two in the morning to search for a 24 hour faith store. Rather you find that the shelves of your soul are already lined and stocked with words, songs, memories, scripture, and people that pull you through.
– Dr. Tim Thompson