God of Seasons

“If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will overlap with the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will overlap with the season of planting grain. You will eat your fill and live securely in your own land.”   Leviticus 26:3-5 (NLT)

I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when he appears to set up his Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths. 2 Timothy 4:1-4 (NLT)

It is a beautiful time of year here on the Gulf Coast. The temperatures are mild. The humidity is lower. My windows are open to let in a lovely breeze. Hurricane season is almost over for the year. My kind of year!

God speaks to us in metaphors we can understand. I grew up on a farm. Rain was essential to the bounty of a crop. As a child sometimes I didn’t like rain because that meant I could not go outside and play. In the summer months, however, it was wonderful to run out in the rain and jump in puddles! The winter snows were also essential to the harvest as the cold killed many insects that when we had ‘mild’ winters the bugs would come back and destroy a crop! The winter hibernation period in the land is part of the cycle that may cause fruit to be more abundant in the next summer.

God is a God of seasons.  This characteristic is one of encouragement and hope for me.  When I am going through a season of tremendous pressure, I know that it is a season and will come to an end.  HALLELUJAH!  Of course there is the other side of the season.  During a time of great peace or spiritual growth, I know that there is a time coming where I will need to apply what I have learned in this season.  HALLELUJAH!
Just as I enjoy spring and fall more than summer or winter, so I enjoy my spiritual seasons of growth (spring) and relief from the refiner’s fire (fall).  I believe that if I lived in an area where the weather was always spring-like or fall-like, I would become lazy and not appreciate the beautiful anticipated seasons that I do like.

I have had some really harsh seasons in my life. God has always been there. I may complain about the season but I am never alone in the season. Faithful God. Worthy of my trust. God is there to show me where to walk and how to walk and carry me when I can do no more. He is the best when it comes to tending to me, desiring to produce abundant fruit in me. He knows the best place for me to be planted. He knows when I need water and His nutrients to grow. God promises to send rain and all that I need to grow strong and healthy.

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!                     Psalm 8 (NLT)