Seasons – Part 1, January 2023

Written on January 1, 2023

Reflecting on this past year, I’ve seen how so many things in my life have changed over that time. And reflecting on the last 3 years, I’ve seen an even greater amount of change – change that was hard, but that I’m deeply grateful for.

I once wrote about how I felt that I was in a season of waiting. How God was preparing me for the next stage in my life, and I was impatient to get there. Early in 2022, I was feeling frustrated by how prolonged that season of waiting was becoming. It felt like I was never going to leave it.

And then about 6 months ago I flipped to an old page in my journal where I’d written a prayer at the beginning of the year, and I was shocked to see how many aspects of that prayer had been answered! I just hadn’t noticed God answering them, because He was doing so in subtle, incremental ways.

I can be very focused on immediate gratification in some ways – I pray for something, and if I don’t see progress on it within a few days, I feel like I must not have prayed right or God must not want to answer me. But God’s timeline is not my timeline. In the grand scheme of things, the 6 months I waited for answers to those prayers were so short – I just didn’t see it at the time.

So, without even noticing it, I believe I’ve walked into the season that God was preparing me for. So many of the things I’ve prayed for have come to fruition, and I feel so blessed.

This does not mean that everything is perfect – I have a lot of growing to do, and plenty of things I’m continuing to pray for. And this doesn’t mean things won’t ever be hard or frustrating again. But I simply want to celebrate the passing of one season and the transition to the next, being mindful of what I’ve learned.

One theme I’ve noticed this year is that there’s a lot of good to be found in simply waiting the hard times out. Naturally, we want the quick fix, to find the solution immediately or to have God answer us in real time. But this isn’t always how things work.

Now, there are hard seasons that we can change. Sometimes we need to repent of sin that’s holding us down. Other times, there are changes we can make to our circumstances. But there are also times when we’ve done all we can, and the season is still just hard. Maybe you’ve gone to the doctors, taken the medications, seen the therapists, but your mental or physical health still isn’t where you want it to be. Or maybe you’ve put yourself out there, entered into your relationships with open hands, and you still find yourself feeling lonely and without the core group of friends you’re longing for.

In those moments, my encouragement to you is to wait it out. To keep giving those things over to God in prayer, and to rest in His presence as you wait. That’s easier said than done. But, I think that many times the only way to get through a hard season is just to get through it, by the strength of the Father who loves us.

I think about how gardens have seasons of rich growth, but also times where nothing seems to be happening. Likewise, I don’t think that every season we experience has to be one of huge, noticeable growth. This isn’t to say we want seasons of backwards action; we don’t want to backslide. But, I think we can release the sense of pressure that makes us feel bad or worthless when we’re feeling a bit stagnant in our spiritual lives. 

What I’ve found is that as long as I stay obedient and consistent in my spiritual disciplines, even when I don’t feel like it, I’ll eventually find my way out of that season and back into a season of growth. 

So, I just want to encourage you all to wait the hard things out, and keep bringing it to God in the waiting. And I’d also encourage you to keep track of your prayers in some way. Just as I didn’t notice God answering my prayers until I looked back at them, you may find that God is showing up in your life in ways you didn’t realize or never expected! The truth is that He always is, whether we recognize it or not. And finally, I want to encourage you to know that no matter how prolonged a difficult or tedious season is, God has not forgotten about you.

Related Scriptures & Songs

Lamentations 3:24-26

“’The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I have hope in Him’. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”

Ephesians 2:9-10

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Seasons – Hillsong

Tend – Bethel Music, Emmy Rose

Let the Ground Rest – Chris Renzema