Are you too busy wishing them away 

or are you not letting them go?

 

Occasionally I will have someone ask me where I find my content for what I write or teach on. Usually, it is through my own personal quiet time with the Lord or through a sermon I’ve heard or a reel I’ve watched. But sometimes God brings a certain subject to my attention through what I am reading, or listening to and it comes up so frequently, and so loudly that I can’t let it rest without taking the time to study and write about it. And this is one of those times.

I rarely understand why God impresses certain topics upon my mind and gives me no rest until I study them out, but what I do know is that he has a reason. Someone somewhere needs to hear what I am going to say. Not because of any ability on my part, but because God’s Word is woven through it and God’s Word is powerful and can speak to the hearts of those who choose to listen.

So, without further ado, here it is.

Seasons. Their purpose. Their longevity. Their power.

This word has popped up in so many different forms over the past week that I can’t ignore it any longer. Maybe God is trying to work through some things in my own life through this, but maybe also, this is something that you’ve been pondering for a while.

We see some form of this word used in scripture 68 times. Seasons are part of God’s grand design for this earth we live on. Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall (Autumn). They are also part of God’s grand design for you and me. Joy and sadness, struggle and peace, birth and death, highs and lows.

All seasons have a reason. They all have a purpose. And we need to remember that all seasons will pass. They won’t last forever.

We will all go through seasons in our lives. Raising children. Building a career. Strengthening a marriage. Caring for a parent. Living out a calling on our life in the form of ministry.

Whatever the season is, we, as God’s children can be assured that he is not absent from any of them. He is always there.

New seasons can be scary. Our sense of identity and security is often wrapped up in our seasons. If we are going through a particularly good season, we might begin to dread the inevitable change on the horizon. We may be leaving behind what we know and love and stepping into an unknown future. And it’s scary. The problem with dreading change is that the only thing certain in life, is that life will change.

But you should know, that although circumstances will shift and change, God’s presence never will.

We need to realise the power and the importance of every season. Good or bad. There is purpose in our seasons.

So often, we spend our seasons strained, stressed and worn out because we are trying so hard to get out of the season we are in so that we can move on to the next one. But what we need to do is to relax into the current season and look for the beauty that lies within it.  

Let me break it down for you. This is often what it looks like.

When we are children, we long for the ‘teenage’ season. Then as we grow older, we long for the single, ‘young adult’ season. And then we want to skip to the ‘married’ season, and then the ‘I want to have children now’ season and then the ‘I can’t wait til the kids grow up’ season and then the empty nest season and on and on it goes. Hurrying things along, racing at breakneck pace until one day we look up and realise that there was beauty in each season, but we actually missed it because we were trying so hard to get to the next season.

Let that sink in for a moment. Have you been guilty of this? Be honest. I know I have.

There have been seasons in my life that I wished would have passed through my life a lot faster than they did, and then there were others I wished would have strolled through more slowly and taken their time lingering a while longer. And more often than not, I missed the beauty to be found in them. I simply wished them away.

Maybe you find yourself in a season of uncertainty or waiting right now. You don’t know what the future holds. You can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. You feel lost and you’re floundering, not really knowing God’s plan or what he would have you do.

Or maybe you are struggling through a dark season of ill health, or turmoil in the form of negative thoughts that have taken over your life. Maybe you have just embarked on a new season that is fresh and yet full of fear because of the unknown.

Whatever the season is, whatever the circumstances, can I give you something to hold on to? The framework for the next season is being set up in the current season you are in. Whatever it is you are going through right now, is preparing you for what is to come next. If you don’t surrender to the season you are in right now, you are going to miss out on the building blocks, the learning, the teaching and the training that is a requirement for you to do well in the next season.

Let me give an example from my own life to help to try and make sense of what I’m saying.

Quite a few years ago, we ran a very large youth group every Friday night with the local, predominantly, indigenous children here in our town. Every week, we would tirelessly give of our time and energy spreading the good news of the gospel to these young lives. It was an entirely new endeavour for our family, and it was very unfamiliar territory because of the cultural differences. I often visited the mothers of these kids and learned to be comfortable with uncomfortable surroundings.

Five years down the track and God closed the door on that ministry. To be honest, part of me was devastated. My identity was so wrapped up in that season, and I felt it had become such a part of me, that I really didn’t see what I was going to do next. I felt lost.

But as God would have it, he had been refining me for a different purpose. A totally different ministry. As different as chalk and cheese, but in teaching me to be comfortable in uncomfortable surroundings, God called me into women’s ministry. Something I had never had a passion for before, became my new all-consuming passion and calling. Teaching, speaking, writing and encouraging Christian women in all walks of life and in varying seasons of life through what God shows me in his Word.

The first season of occasional discomfort was preparing me for my next season. He knew I wasn’t ready to jump into the next season, without first walking through the previous one. There were lessons that needed to be learnt. There were impurities that needed to be chipped away. Rough edges polished off.

I have been through some very hard seasons in my life, some of which I’ve shared in my posts. One thing I’ve learnt as I walked through the dark times, is that God always has a purpose, and his ultimate goal is to make me more like him.

His hard seasons are for refining. Look at these verses in 1 Peter.

1 Peter 1:6,7 KJV - Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

 The Greek word for season in this verse is oligos. It has the meaning of little, small, few. Small in number, quantity and size. Short in time. Light in degree and intensity.

Peter wrote this to remind us that our seasons are of a certain, God-prescribed duration. They are a season. A period of time. They are not forever. So, if you are walking through a hard season right now, be encouraged that it is not forever. And it has a purpose. God is working to refine you and mold you into his image.

The Apostle Paul reiterates this in 1 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 4:17,18 KJV - For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

He reminds us that our seasons, although they may not seem like it at the moment, are light and momentary, and they are working for an eternal purpose.

I don’t understand why God works the way he does, but I trust his character and I hold to his promises, knowing that he has a plan and as the seasons come and the seasons go, I can breathe a sigh of relief – I don’t have to cling tightly to the seasons that I enjoy and wish away the seasons I don’t if I keep a firm grasp of his hand. The one stable and unchanging presence that will always be with me. Jesus Christ. The same, yesterday, today, forever.

Circumstances will change but he never will. Seasons will come and go but he never will. His presence will be there with you through the storm or in the sunshine, in the rain, or as you skip through fields of flowers or as you stumble over uneven ground.

The God who holds the universe in the palm of his hand is the same God who holds your hand.

Trust him in the seasons of your life. And don’t miss the beauty he wants to show you as you walk your way through them. There is beauty to be found. Open your eyes and ask God to show you. Don’t miss a moment or waste your seasons.  

In closing, I would like to say that I want to explore this topic a little more in a future post as there is so much more to be said. But for now, remember that it is possible to come through hard seasons and be better for it. If you go into it with a Heavenly perspective, and a heart devoted to God, he can and will work through you for his glory and for your good.

Romans 8:28 KJV - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.