Times & Seasons

 


"I'm so grateful I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables


In this quote, Anne is rejoicing that in (Canadian) October she can see the changing season of Autumn and all of the beauty that it brings.

The Seasons are one of my favourite things. They are such a good reminder to us that there is a time and season for everything under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3).

God has seasons and time (day and night, hours, weeks, months, years!) - all in order and structure to show his sovereignty. From the beginning of Creation, God set all these things in order. 

As a family, we are currently in the middle of many different levels of seasons:

  • Half a year into a three-year season of living in Australia (and everything that goes with the season of living as a student and a stay at home parent)
  • Almost at the end of one semester before a season of mid-year break 
  • A season of raising a baby 
  • And just practically, beginning a season of extra cold winter after a hot summer and a mild autumn

I'm not a big fan of winter usually (especially rain - although being in Australia now, I'm already gaining a second-hand appreciation for whatever much needed rain is given). I love summer! But then I wouldn't love summer to go on forever. 

We can't fully appreciate summer without winter. 

We can't fully appreciate seasons of plenty without seasons of little. 

We can't fully appreciate seasons of break and rest without seasons of busy and work.

We can't fully appreciate good health unless we've experienced illness or injury (even a cold is enough to remind us how good it is to be well and breathe easily!)

We can't fully appreciate so many things God gives us if we simply take them for granted. 

Recently I have been reading Exodus. In this book, Moses tells of God's plan of redemption for his people. They were in a long season of waiting for deliverance out of Egypt. But it wasn't their first or last season. They had a season of famine before they first came to Egypt; then a season of plenty; then a season of hardship and persecution; then a season of deliverance but also of hard exile in the desert; then a season of blessed covenant fulfilment in the Promised Land - and many seasons to follow. 

God carries us from one season to the next with purpose. He is sovereign over times and seasons, and we can rest in the knowledge that he is always watching over and guiding us.




Suggested prayer points:

  • Thank God for the seasons you are currently in and ask him to show you his will in it, and to bring you closer to him
  • Pray and ask God for the season you're waiting for and wanting to arrive, if it is his will
  • Ask God to prepare you for whatever your next season holds, and to help you to trust him for it 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Contentment: Paul and Spurgeon

  "Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him." 1 Corinthians 7:17  Lately, I have been pondering what it means to be content.  In the last six months, I have left a job I loved, given birth, and then three months later left all our family, home, church family and the only country I have ever lived in to move to a new country for three years while my husband studies for ministry. Now don't get me wrong. I love our life! I love our baby boy, who is the absolute light of my life (despite his entry into the world being a bit traumatic and leaving some physical and emotional wounds yet to be healed). I am fully supportive of my husband studying for ministry, and have been from the very start - we are very excited to see where the Lord continues to lead us. Yet at the same time, I am homesick - for my old home, my friends and family, my church, even occasionally for my old job and the working life. The shift into stay-...
Read more

Welcome!

This is a new branch of the Selah Vie Project, which has been running on Instagram for several years now. I may not post here on a strict schedule, but I will aim for around once a week and see where it goes! It is my prayer that these posts will be an encouragement to even one person who reads, and that God would use it in whatever way he may bless it.  Happy reading!
Read more

Pride & Giving God the Glory

After professing my intention to post regularly on here, it has now already been far too long since my previous post, so I suppose I start already on a note of being humbled. (Insert the usual myriad of excuses - life, parenting, priorities etc.) Of course the point of these posts isn't for me to look great and put together, so it's only fitting.   "On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last." Acts 12:21-23, ESV (via Bible Gateway )  Recently (now some time ago, as this one has been in drafts for a while!), we read Acts chapter 12, and something about the demise of Herod struck me. God smote him down, but that is not suprising in itself. Herod was a man who, we can probably all agree, deserved ...
Read more