But I’m not going to. Why not? Two reasons. First, the enemy of our souls loves to spread discouraging news, whether true or false. As getting cold and damp increases your chance of catching some virus of the body, so discouraged Christians – weakened in faith, love and hope – are vulnerable to every sickness of the soul. The second reason is simply that, beyond the noisy buffeting and chilling winds of our day, there are many encouragements. Let me offer you four.
First, that the faithful church finds itself struggling against the harsh winds of the world should surprise no one. It is exactly what our Lord promised his people long ago: ‘In this world you will have trouble’ (John 16:33 NIV). Older generations of Christians, many of whom grew up shuddering at the horrors detailed in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, knew that Christians should be prepared for opposition. An appropriately meteorological comment is in that old hymn of John Bunyan’s ‘To Be a Pilgrim’, with its lines, ‘One here will constant be, come wind, come weather . . .’ No, for the faithful follower of Jesus, storms are normal. Indeed, I would be more upset if our church did not face turbulence. I’m not trivialising matters by suggesting that, with so much opposition, we must be doing something right.
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