#God’s #Promises for Barren #Seasons

Winter was late in my neck of the woods this year.  Well into January, we could walk, bike, hike, even golf-unprecedented, especially for January.  And then it hit-winter.  Not the gradual kind with temps in the 30s and snow to start, but a 40 degree drop in temps and almost a foot snow, all of a sudden.  This week we ventured out into temps as low as -10 to go to school and participate in as much “normalcy” as we could while praying our cars would start and not leave us stranded.  

On top of this shock, I had a bad week.  I made such mistakes as leaving my car light on all night, requiring my husband to jump my car in -15 temps.  Needless to say, the limitations of the severe weather and my serious personal weaknesses left me feeling, well, like a true failure.  I want to be in control of my activities, my actions, etc. . . . And this week. . . I haven’t been.

Just as the weather comes in seasons-even if they are wonky at times-life comes in seasons too.  This week I could barely function.  My plans were limited by circumstance and my own personal shortcomings. And God foresaw all of it.  What’s funny?  I’m certain his carefully orchestrated purposes were carried out while I stumbled through each day. 

As Ecclesiastes 3 states, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal. . . “, and time to be revisit the reality of my weakness.  For while I know such truths as “. . . apart from me you can do nothing . . . “ (John 15:4-5), “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21), and “ . . . you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears and for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14), I still feel that I am only valuable when I am “productive”-accomplishing what I deem necessary for that day, week, or month.  When I am not productive, like this week, I feel uncertain, revealing my true inclination to rely on myself more than God more often than not.

One of my favorite books I came across in my 20’s was a devotional-now out of print- that used Amy Carmichael’s writings as a source.  One of her illustrations talked of the “winter” seasons of our lives, the “bare” seasons when it felt like we were bearing nothing, especially not fruit.  A woman who spent 20 years bed-ridden surely had the right to talk of such seasons-she knew that feeling better than most. 

While I cannot find this book- I have lent my copies and cannot by another- I recently came across a quote of hers from If stating, “Trust me to poor My love through thee, as minute succeeds minute.  And if thou shouldst be conscious of anything hindering that flow, do not hurt My love by going away from Me in discouragement for nothing can hurt so much as that . . . Trust me to turn My hand upon thee and thoroughly to remove the boulder that has choked thy riverbed, and take away all the sand that has silted up the channel.  I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.  I will perfect that which concerneth thee” (If). 

Wow.  What a way to illustrate Philippians 1:6.  I am so grateful that God’s plans are not thwarted by “boulders”-even if I put them there in my own weakness. 

Lord, help me faithfully accept the seasons you bring, good and bad, knowing that even in the seemingly fruitless frozen tundra, you, not me, are responsible for bringing “it (the good work you are doing in me) to completion at the day Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).