Galatians 6:9
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Lancaster County’s agricultural rhythms provide us with front row seats to God’s bouquet of seasons and earth cycles. Spring is always loaded with the verdant greens and freshly sprouting fields. Colors burst into flame around mailboxes and walkways, yet by July, the heat of the summer has had a wilting effect on the thirsty plants. They grow brown and weary, and they bend over in prayer for the rain and cooler evenings to refresh them. Finally, after the oppressive heat has relented, the amber fall collages arrive with a parade of pumpkins, mums and squash lining the tractor carts and front door stoops. Late November corn is always the last to go, dried to a golden yellow and clipped just before the first dusting of snow begins.
Life revolves around seasons. You already know this. We see it in planet earth and we see it in our monthly schedules. Children teething is a season. Studying long hours for night-school is a season. That difficult year of marriage is a winter season. The extraordinary financial blessings from the bull market is a season. There is a natural order and progression to life: birth, adolescent, maturity, reproduction, harvest.
One of the wisest life skills we can learn is be in tune with the season we are in, and partner with God in that season. On Sunday Pastor Brian talked about six phases to faith: dream, decision, delay, difficulty, dead-end, deliverance phase. A simple question you can ask yourself is, “Which of these seasons am I in, and what is the Lord expecting from me in this season?” Is this a season to take action and plant new things, or is it a season to simply water what has already been planted? Is this a season to persevere, or is it a season to cut down the old and start something new?—Or maybe it’s the winter maintenance season when we rest, retool, and prepare for the next big push.
In your relationships, marriages, community involvement, and vocational calling, I’m praying that you stay encouraged, and that you not grow weary, but keep doing the next “right thing.” At the proper time “we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Tags: faith, holy spirit, encouragement, perseverence, seasons
