Seasons Of Your FaithSample

 As I enter into a new season of my life, I see the importance of recognizing challenges not as a problem, but as a beginning. With each new trouble comes a blessing, as long as we change our outlook from pessimistic to optimistic. I just went through the most amazing season of my life- summer. I was free and diving deeper into my relationship with Christ and everything else just felt like it was finally falling into place perfectly. I had the guy I’d been head over heels for, my dream job, and felt that I was spending all my days with friends just enjoying the break. I began wondering if this is really what happens when you follow God’s plan for your life. However, with every high, there comes a low. I had to stick with my prior plan and move to a different city for college- forcing me to leave my whole new and exciting world for challenges and a whole lot of newness. The crazy part is, in my moments before making the move, I was given many opportunities to stay in the comforts of my hometown with my people. So why didn’t I?

Because God told me to move. There was a reason the events in my life happened the way they did, and as much as it hurt, I knew God wanted me to move. As hard as the switch was, there is a sense of peace when you know you’re fulfilling God’s plan for your life and not just playing it “safe”. Sure, there are moments when you just break down and cry, but once there are no tears left to cry, remind yourself how much growth will come from this experience. It is also important to remember the cross; Jesus sacrificed his life for me, so why should I not lay down my life for him? The sacrifice he made was far greater than my decision to move from what I know and love, but they are the same in the way that God was with Jesus during his death and resurrection, and I am confident he will stick by me through my trials and triumphs. So, what comes to your mind when you think of what you could do to lay your life down for Him?

There are so many metaphors between nature and faith, and one I have noticed happening in my life is the seasons. I’m sure you know them- fall, spring, winter, and summer. Those are the physical seasons, but we often don’t look at the seasons with faith goggles on (as my pastor would say). Each physical season has a corresponding faith season. In the next four days, I will go into depth about what I believe to be the meaning of each season.