{"id":3536,"date":"2014-12-21T09:01:53","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T14:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.districtdiva.com\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2016-12-21T03:18:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T08:18:34","slug":"winter-solstice-means-new-beginnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/winter-solstice-means-new-beginnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Solstice Means New Beginnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 21, the Winter Solstice begins in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the official start of winter, the shortest day and the longest night of the year.\u00a0The sun will set at 4:32 p.m., giving us 14.75 hours of night. This is a good thing.<\/p>\n

The Winter Solstice has spiritual significance because it\u00a0marks a new season of life, a turning point. For those like me who have been going through any sort of spiritua<\/a>l<\/a><\/strong><\/span> crisis<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0lately, or for awhile,\u00a0the coming 14.75 hours of darkness are a much needed blessing and an opportune time to get some clarity and cleansing from God.<\/p>\n

King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has placed eternity in humans’ hearts, so that they cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end. This word eternity has been interpreted by some as a veil or a darkness that God places in our hearts to hide things from us which we cannot possibly handle or fathom. Darkness is God’s hedge of protection around us.<\/p>\n

Tonight, sit in that protection. Get comfortable in darkness, in the unknown and unfathomable will of God. Spend this night in prayer, fasting, meditation and Scripture, knowing that God will not leave you alone in your crisis, in your darkness. Know that to God<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, “even the darkness is not dark to You;\u00a0<\/span>the night is bright as the day,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for darkness is as light with You.”\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Know that whatever weeping this past season has brought to you, joy is coming in the morning. Peace is coming in the morning.\u00a0 Light is coming in the morning.<\/p>\n

This solstice heralds the coming of the sun. Spend this night in expectancy. This is your spiritual turning point, a chance to do things differently, to turn away from what is holding you back and turn toward the open arms of the loving God who created you for a special purpose, a far greater path than the one you’ve been walking on this past season. Old things have past away; Behold, the new has come!<\/p>\n

Winter Solstice<\/span> Resources<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

5 Spiritual Benefits of Fasting<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Psalm 139<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Free Christian Meditations<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 21, the Winter Solstice begins in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the official start of winter, the shortest day and the longest night of the year.\u00a0The sun will set at 4:32 p.m., giving us 14.75 hours of night. This is a good thing. The Winter Solstice has spiritual significance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[232,331,552,611,733,820,821,865,876,1041],"class_list":["post-3536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-usual-dithering","tag-darkness","tag-fasting","tag-light","tag-meditation","tag-prayer","tag-science-is-our-friend","tag-scripture","tag-solomon","tag-spiritual-crisis","tag-winter-solstice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2014\/12\/canton-tower-outside-night.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7nB6F-V2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3536"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3865,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3536\/revisions\/3865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}