Seasons of Change
Seasons.
There is nothing like the change of the seasons to stir the smoldering coals of expectation in a human heart
What season are you in today? Now … I am actually not talking about fall … winter … summer or spring.
I am referring to a season of change … or a season of challenge … or a season of contentment … or a season of nothing but happy … or a season of hard.
I have found myself in a season of surrender … and … honestly … it has been nothing but sweet.
Sweet surrender.
Not every season is a season of surrender, however.
There are times in life when God calls you to go after your giant with the five smooth stones that you have found in your hand. He calls you to be relentless and bold and audacious as you come against that monstrous and mountainous thing that stands in your way.
We all have a Goliath, don’t we?
Goliath was that behemoth of a man that taunted the armies of the living God. He was too big for his britches and he wore some mighty big britches! Goliath and his buddies were a blood-thirsty gang of hoodlums who were looking for a fight with the people of God.
What is your Goliath?
What is that thing that has smack-talked to you for the past season of your life? Your Goliath may not carry a sword or a shield but he brandishes weapons of life-killing intent in every encounter. Your Goliath might charge at you with unemployment, infertility, sexual abuse, loneliness, depression, divorce or rebellious children.
A Goliath usually seems bigger than you are … it stalks you day and night … and never ceases its incessant chatter.
“Then David spoke to the men who were standing by him, saying, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should taunt the armies of the living God?” – I Samuel 17:26
The more experienced and older soldiers had run away from the threats of Goliath, but not the boy David! He knew that His God was bigger and stronger than any giant would ever be!
The shepherd boy started telling the giant Goliath what his fate was going to be before one blow was even taken.
“This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” – I Samuel 17:46
When was the last time that you did that? When was the last time that you told your Goliath exactly where he was going?!
You are chopped liver, unemployment!
You are under my feet, cancer and diabetes!
My children will serve the Lord, you demon of rebellion!
The true victory was won before David even put the little stone into his boyhood slingshot. When David began to declare the power of God over his enemy, all of the appointed heavenly host came to the shepherd boy’s aid.
“Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and he struck the Philistine and killed him; but there was no sword in David’s hand.” – I Samuel 17:50
David didn’t need a sword in his hand because the sword was in his mouth! David took down the enemy the very instant that he began talking about the Name and the power of God.
I have killed some giants in my day. I have charged situations and challenges; I have been known to declare victory before the battle even had begun. I have stormed the forces of hell and fought the good fight of faith with nothing but worship and the Word of God.
My middle name is “Bold”.
When the enemy sees me coming, he has been known to say, “Here comes one relentless woman!”
But sometimes … God calls us to an Abrahamic moment.
And that’s where I am today … in a season of sweet surrender.
Do you remember the story of Abraham and Sarah? They had no children until she was almost 90 and Abraham was knocking on the door of 100 years old. They were mostly toothless, forgetful and that honeymoon glow had long disappeared.
And yet God gave them a little boy named Isaac. What joy! What incredulity! What laughter! What a miracle!
But when Isaac was a strapping young man, filled with potential and destiny, God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the altar as a burnt offering.
What?! Are you kidding me, God?! You answered with a son … and then You require him of Abraham and Sarah?
One of the most breathtaking miracles of this story is that Abraham didn’t argue with God. Abraham didn’t tell God all of the reasons why Isaac shouldn’t die.
The Bible tells us that early the next morning, after hearing the voice of God, that Abraham took Isaac up the mountain.
What an arduous climb that must have been!
Abraham loved God more than he loved his son. Abraham had heard the voice of God and knew of no other way to live than to simply obey God.
Sweet surrender.
Abraham bound up his son, laid him on the altar and as the knife was poised in the air, ready to pierce the chest of Isaac, God intervened.
An angel of the Lord appeared on the scene and told Abraham that he had passed God’s test.
“The angel said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the land, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” – Genesis 22:12
What is God asking you to surrender today? A dream … a relationship … a memory.
Maybe God is asking you to give up your vacation this year and go on a missions trip instead.
Perhaps God is requiring you to give a large sum of money to a ministry or to your church.
Maybe God is quietly whispering in your ear that it is time for you to surrender a habit, an addiction or an opinion.
I am in a season of surrender.
God has asked me to lay down so many things during this season of change in my life that I have lost count! There have been moments when the pain has been enormous in the surrendering. However, there have been other times during my arduous climb up the mountain of surrender, when it has been so sweet that I could nearly smell the atmosphere of heaven.
Is God calling you to a David moment? Is it time for you to charge your giant with the Word of God? If it is … do it with all of your might! You serve a mighty big God, my friend!
Or have you been called, at this season in your life, to an Abrahamic moment? Is it time for you to experience the sweetness of surrender? If this is your calling today, I will see you there … on the mountain of surrender … inhaling the atmosphere of heaven.
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!
