CHANGING SEASONS

I love the sunshine!  I love spring, and I love summer seasons.  If it could be spring and summer year round, I would be content.  At least I think I would.  

I complained as I sat looking at the rain come down so forcefully the other day while at work.  It was so gloomy outside.  Yesterday another light shower fell, but this time I could see the sun and white clouds in the distance.  We NEED the rain.  Without it, everything would whither up and die.  It is the same way in the seasons of life.  We need those ‘storms’ that blow into our life.  It may seem like we’re going to be blown away by the force of the wind as the pelting rain stings our skin, but it is causing us to dig our roots deeper into Christ.  It is in those times we find our shelter under the shadow of His wings and learn to trust in Him more fully.   At other times, He sends a light shower that refreshes our soul as we see light and hope peeking up beyond the rain clouds. 

We also need the autumn seasons when things are changing.  Old things are dying off, but then the cold begins to come as winter moves in.  It feels like everything is dead and barren.  The icy sting of the bitter cold cuts straight through to the bone as snow begins to cover the ground.   Everything becomes ice covered, and at times we can’t feel anything because the cold has caused us to become numb.  The longer winter seems to linger, the more we wonder if we’ll survive.  We feel forsaken, desolate, and alone at times.

We need that season of dying off to self, to old ways, things that shouldn’t be in our life.  It’s in that time that we realize we are hopeless without Christ.  It’s in that season that we realize how much we need HIM.  Don’t give up in that season, spring is coming.  Just when you think everything within you is dead, hope and life will begin to bud and spring forth as God creates a NEW thing in you.   

God gave us each season for a reason.  Each season does have a purpose.  Just as changing seasons are necessary in life, so are they necessary to keep balance, health, and well-being in our spiritual life.   I’m not ready for fall, because I know winter will soon follow.   I’d prefer the warmth of sunshine and to see the flowers continue to bloom, but I know I also need the season for things to die off that shouldn’t be in my life.  It’s painful, sometimes brutal, but what follows makes it all worth it as we once again begin to see the things God is cultivating within us bloom and blossom as spring returns.

No matter what season you may be in right now, hold on and endure with patience.   A new season is coming!  God is working in you, and when He is finished you will trade beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that you may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord!  (Isaiah 61:3)
 

**Published in the Feb 2015 issue of the Pentecostal Herald – pg 41
https://issuu.com/pentecostalherald/docs/februaryherald_for_web

THE POTTER and THE WHEEL

Jeremiah 18:1-6

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 

Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 

Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: 

So he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. 

Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

How many times have we said,

         "Use me, Lord!"

                 "I'll do whatever You ask!"

                          And "Whatever it takes for my will to break, that's what I'll be willing to do."

Yet when the trials and opposition come, and things get harder and tougher,

we begin to struggle and fight against it seeking for it to end or a way out. 

God is trying to form us.  When we fight against the storms, whose will are we really seeking?

            God's will? 

                    Or our own?

He knows what's best for us and will not put on us more than we can bear

(although sometimes we think and feel it is).

When we come through these trials, we'll be refined like silver and tried like gold.

Trials will either make you....

            Bitter or Better

                     

You can either become....

            A Victim or A Victor 

Through trials you gain:

            Experience
            Knowledge
            Endurance 

            Patience

            Understanding

            Compassion

            Love 

            Faith

God has each of us on the Potter's Wheel, but sometimes we resist the way He's forming us.  

He's trying to shape us one way, but we're pulling in another.

If we have our way, we will be deformed.  

But if we let God have His way, we'll  be transformed into a Vessel of Honor....

something we both will be proud of. 

It hurts!  Oh, how it hurts at time....but stay yielded!

***Note:  This was something God gave me on March 3, 2011....2 months before my husband passed.  I had written it in a journal.  Just came across it again and felt led to share.