Just like life, my life with God is often filled with seasons. There are times where it is fresh and new like spring. Other times it is crisp and refreshing like fall. It can be rejuvenating like the summer sun beating down on me. Sometimes it feels isolating and gloomy like the dead of winter.
My life with God can also reflect the different terrains of this earth. There are times I feel the peace of stillness sitting on a beach quietly listening to the waves lap on the shore. Other times, I feel close to God like I do on a mountain in Montana as the sun rises over the ridge. Sometimes, I find myself in the desert where I am searching and feel far from God and His people.
These past few years our family has seen a lot of change. We moved to a major city in a different state. We added a baby to our blended family, which has created a new dynamic for our family (and in 3 months we will add another baby). For the first time in 16 years, I am not working outside the home. Our two oldest girls have begun new school journeys in high school and middle school. I feel like I am not as involved with the youth at church because I have a one-year-old. Yet, I don’t feel like I fit with the young moms because I am an older mom with teenagers. I treasure inter-generational relationships, but it seems like they are more work to develop at a large church than at a small church where relationships sprang more organically.
I say all this to say that I have felt like I am navigating a spiritual desert. I am trying to find my place to serve. I am trying to seek real gut-level connections. I feel like my quiet times are stale and black and white when they used to be awakening and vibrant like the new colors of spring.
BUT–I know enough and have been through enough in life to know I need to hang on and keep doing what I know to be true and important. I need to remember that seasons come and go and that spiritual terrain changes. Without these changes, growth does not happen. Unfortunately, I don’t grow from easy stuff. So, I need to keep trying to connect. I need to stick with my quiet time. My God is a God of promises and he is a promise keeper.
Isaiah 43:19 ( International Standard Version)
“Watch! I’m about to carry out something new! And now it’s springing up— don’t you recognize it? I’m making a way in the wilderness and paths in the desert.”
What season or terrain are you experiencing with God? How has your faith matured through these seasons?
- How to Help Those Going Through Divorce - January 22, 2018
- Courageous Perseverance - January 9, 2018
- Hearing God through Music - October 24, 2017
I myself have gone through many seasons with God, i can tell when i may be falling into a dry season and i dread it! But i always cling to God, cling to His word, cling to His truths and I always come out renewed, refreshed, and closer to Him! I have many verses written on sticky notes on my desk, they all remind me that He is with me and times of refreshing will come! He never leaves us! 😉 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. {Ecc. 3:1} God is GREAT!… Read more »
I have been coming face to face with my fears and learning to trust God more. Although I may have to do this several times a day.
Lord, thank you so much for giving us the courage in you to face our fears and dispelling the lies around them. You are holy and true and we need to fear nothing that this life holds. Be with Mikki throughout the day as she is facing and fighting off these fears.
I am somewhat in the same place e. New city. New state. New people. Second time in a year. It’s hard…but it in itself is a growing place. 🙂
http://unveiledandrevealed.com
Lord we ask you to be with Brianna as she is faces a bunch of new things, but we praise you that she has you steadily by her side!
Navigating different Spiritual terrains can be rough – I think I’m in a low one today, as my daughter has not been feeling well for a while and I just don’t know what else to do. She is so young that the drs. aren’t necessarily taking the actions I think they should be. But I try to see these times as spiritual gains in my life! I know they will pass and when they do, I will be better for it!