The Seasons!

(Habakkuk 3:17) “Though the fig tree should not blossom.”

It is now as I sit on the deck of a holiday house and look out over the sea with the sun rising from the east typing my blog on my notebook that I realize that once the sun breaks the sea it is an impossible task to compete with the sun. The glare so intense that I no longer am able to see the screen and to continue with any efficiency as I try to keep on typing, what started out as an easy exercise prior to the sun rising has now become an impossible task.

Just as the seasons have their season, so too must we have seasonal reasoning. Who has ever seen a gardener prune the leaves off a tree in autumn? That would be ridiculous! God has made away for them to shed as He commanded; there is a time and a place for trees to lose their leaves. Nothing can be done to prevent it. Why then do we as Christians always look to prune ourselves, why are we always so hard on ourselves? I do not mean that we should not be sober with our reasoning. Obviously we are called to judge ourselves so that we would not be judged with the world. It is our obligation and responsibility to examine whether we eat worthily. But I think sometimes we forget that our great God and Father is the potter and we are but the clay. We love to as the clay take charge and somehow try manipulating the potters hand as we see fit. A pointless exercise!

Our lives have been mapped out from before the foundation of the world, and there will be seasons no differently to the trees losing their leaves in autumn, at times, we too will feel bare and exposed. This however is only for a season! In fact this is the time we are more dependent upon the “Root” for nourishment as our “branches to life” are now exposed to all the elements the season has to throw at us.

I have seen a great danger come to the fore when we enter this barren season, we become so self-sufficient and forget that we are in greater need of the roots nourishment. We begin to eat from our own tree, the “body of death”, instead of the finished work of Calvary. We walk in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.

It is king Solomon that teachers us that as in the seasons we too must have times of sadness and then happiness, it is what helps to build us in character. But it is not up to the individual to look to build his own character; how often do we summons unnecessary hardships upon ourselves when there is no need for it? Far too often I would suggest! We forget that the wisest of all master-builders is at work. Why is it then that we ever feel that we are capable of competing with our great God? A Futile exercise!

We must learn to always be dependent upon our Lord and Saviour and even the more when our branches lie bare to life’s hard lessons. It is for a specific reason, even if we do not see it at the time. To question our maker is simple folly! If God is for us who can be against us, I ask you? If we have His Spirit we then belong to Him, no ifs and buts! Let us not be like the misguided priests from days gone by were they would sit flogging themselves to feel worthy, dead works of the highest order. In Christ alone, by grace alone and through faith alone do we stand. We cannot earn it, we cannot work for it, for if we could it would not be a gift from God but rather payment for our own efforts and this would then nullify the perfect work of Calvary. God forgive us forever entering into this type of reckoning, it is forgiveness we need and we reason like this far too often.

Let us learn not to try and force the seasons, but rather learn to recognize them for their own beauty and we too will then share the sentiments of the prophet and song writer; “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

It is in this place that we will learn to understand this verse with meaning; “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) And it is in these barren times that we must learn to love one another as ourselves. This is the Apostles John’s lesson to us!

God give us the strength to be solely dependent upon His Son’s finished work and not our own make shift plans that can only ever amount to even more heartache.

Signing off

Tyrone