I was recently asked to give a talk on growing closer to God through different seasons of life. This blog is part one of a serialisation of my talk. In the coming weeks I’ll share the rest.
When thinking about how we grow closer to God in the different seasons of life, I feel very privileged to be asked to speak on this topic, for this is something I personally treasure. My journey in going deeper with God is uniquely personal and the ways in which I have grown, the approach that I have taken, the lessons God’s had for me and where I find myself now speaking to you today is only testament to God’s grace to me. He has proved faithful, even when I was so many times unfaithful. I am also a little hesitant about speaking on this, for the last thing I want to do is promote one way of devotional life, or one means of connecting with God, for their are no rights or wrongs. Each of you have your own journey, and will be at different points on that journey of growing in maturity. Some of you will be new in your faith, and still figuring out how to navigate yourself around the bible, others will have known and experienced God for many years, even more years than me. You’ll have experienced different seasons, you have different personalities, different pressure points and different ways of engaging with God. This is not a comparison exercise, but I hope that as I share some of the ways I’ve grown closer to God in the ever changing seasons of my life that you will be encouraged in your walk with God. And I hope this will encourage you to reflect on your own journey and see how God has been at work in you.
I find the concept of seasons a really helpful one in thinking about our lives. In the bible in the book of Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1-8 it says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” It goes on to say in vs 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
This passage of scripture reminds me that God ordains and sets boundaries on times and seasons. There is a time for everything, and everything is made beautiful in its time. God has good purpose for each season, even the most painful ones, to shape us more in his likeness. This passage of scripture also gives comfort and hope. God is sovereign over all our days. We can’t know the future, we don’t know how long a season will be, but we can know the God who is Alpha and Omega. The more we know of the Father’s heart, the more we can trust him for all the seasons.
Before I begin reflecting more deeply on the seasons I’ve traversed I will say that even though many of my habits and attitudes have changed, as different seasons had different demands and dimensions to them, some things have remained the same. I have made it a practice to regularly seek God in prayer and in reading his word. They are the foundation on which I still grow in my knowledge and love of my Heavenly Father.
I’ve identified 6 seasons which I think have been the most significant times of spiritual growth for me. and so I start in a season I call exhausted contentment.
When I look back now on the years when I had four children under 8 years old I see those years as growing a spiritual foundation that would become a bedrock for me when the storms of life were going to blow hard and fast for many years. I had begun the habit in my late teens of reading my bible everyday and being a person who liked routine and was inclined to be disciplined I tried to keep this as a constant. I want to acknowledge at this point that I grew up in a Christian home where personal and family devotional time with God was a normal daily occurrence. My father was a minister, and both he and my mother regularly modelled this to me. This I am grateful for, but it became a high bench mark, that I was at times burdened by and God had some particular lessons for me in this season, as for most of this season of life I was exhausted and run off my feet. A lot of my devotional life was catching snippets of time with God. Often these times were interrupted by small children and my Mummy brain that was so sleep deprived and desperate for time out, I often found it hard to concentrate on what I was reading, and very forgetful of anything that required extra brain power. In many ways a lot of my devotional life was going through the motions. I knew it was important to do, I still held onto an ideal of what devotional time should look like, but I was often frustrated that my ideal was always rudely interrupted by kids. I remember the first time I actually raised my concerns that I wasn’t finding it easy with a baby to read my bible and the older women in my bible study laughed! I had a lot to learn. One lesson God had for me in this season came in the form of a rebuke. I was coming to God every day, but I was beginning to treat it like a box ticking exercise, not seeing it as a time of investing in a relationship that mattered to me.
This rebuke began to change the way I came to God. I was kinder to myself when there were days when I didn’t sit down to read my bible and pray. Matthew 11 vs 28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What a beautiful invitation and promise to all of us who are weary and burdened. And one burden I needed to lay at Jesus feet was the burden of guilt and shame that I wasn’t measuring up to my own high standard. I could come to him anytime with all my cares and concerns and know that he understood me. I began to appreciate that I could pray to God at anytime and in any place and so availed myself of this wonderful truth. I could pray out on walks, making breakfast for the family, driving in my car. The same was true of being spiritually fed. While nothing replaces God’s word, I’ve always appreciated reading other Christian women’s perspectives on living a life of faith, and to that end have sought to read alongside God’s word, Christian books that would encourage me. While it was a season of life that was physically exhausting, with little to no personal space, it was a time of life I found deeply satisfying with a profound sense of purpose and enjoyment.
Are you in a season of exhaustion…and maybe not contented? Your exhaustion might come from a very different source, caring for a disabled child, or an aging parent. Your employment might demand long hours, you might be struggling with insomnia. Time to yourself might be a luxury, but I encourage you to simply ask God to help you remember him and his truth. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been shown what to do, or tried it before. You can come to God any time and in any way. It might look like listening to a Christian podcast as you commute to work, listening to gospel centred music as you cook dinner, or writing on your mirror a bible verse that can encourage you each day. Jesus beckons us all to rest in him.
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