I was walking with the Worst-Best the other morning, albeit much slower these days, but that’s what happens when the years go by. It was a predawn morning, a little warmer than some. As we moved steadily up and down the road that cuts the fields, a shiver ran through me. We’d hit a cold spot. You know what I mean, you’re moving along and all at once the air suddenly turns cold. It’s the gentlest of breezes. The moving of the air is so subtle it’s almost imperceptible. But it’s just enough to usher in a chill pocket. We kept moving and as quickly as it came, the cold spot was gone. That’s happened to you before, right? We notice those cold spots particularly in the middle of Summer. But when we emerge from the cold spot, we recognize it, don’t we? We notice when we travel through different temperatures, from hot to cold, or from cold to hot and we almost always comment on it and ask our companion, did you feel that? You see, we’re feeling people, right?
As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease. Genesis 8:22
We’re told that as long as the earth endures we’re going to have cold and heat. We may walk through those cold pockets many times a day. It may even feel like we’re living in a cold pocket and the warmth will never come. Or that we’re stuck in a hot pocket and praying for a cold spell with every step. On the inside and outside. This reminds me of my deep need for Jesus. When I hit a cold spot and I need Him so desperately or, when I hit a hot spot and need Him so desperately. He knows what I need in the cold and the heat of life. Just maybe those little spots were put there to remind me of that.
Because it was cold, the servants and officers were standing around a charcoal fire they had made to keep warm. And Peter was also standing with them, warming himself. John 18:18
We’re just like Peter who hit those spots more than once. Those spots where we have been made cold by our denial, our pain, our loss, our hurt, our sin. Those spots where parts of our hearts are just frozen solid. But what does Jesus do in those places?
“The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!” Luke 24:34
In those cold spots of life when we need Him so much, Jesus is there. He thaws our frozen hearts, with His presence.
Likewise, with those hot spots of life, you know the ones where we’re tested by the fiery flames of the world – mistreatment, oppression, persecution – followers of Christ have been, will be, or should be in those spots. Hot spots where our faith is challenged, our beliefs are questioned, our convictions tried. He protects us from the heat with His presence.
But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a divine being!”
Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”
So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke! Daniel 3:24-25
His presence calls us beyond the cold spots and hot spots of this life. Being rescued and protected by His presence then requires us to live our lives as rescued and protected people. If we know Jesus, the cold and hot spots of life are tempered by the presence of the Spirit living inside us and we will emerge warmed and untouched by the flames. The Lord has really risen!