Hope for Every Season With Danny Gokeyഉദാഹരണം

Fall

Autumn is such a season of juxtapositions. All seasons are about change, but autumn is the embodiment of being okay with and embracing change and letting go.

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” This is a well-known quote from the book Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. If you’re fortunate enough to live in a part of the country that experiences true seasons, you know that autumn brings abundance and sweeping swaths of vibrant color. And Joel 2:23 tells us that autumn rains are a representation of God’s faithfulness.

But the reality is, that beauty and blessing can be short-lived.

The rain ends. Before long, the leaves begin to fall and soon the trees are bare. Jude 1:12 describes “trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots.”

Cold descends. It can take you by surprise. One day, it’s still balmy and the next, you wake to discover frost on the ground.

But just because the season of bearing fruit has passed does not mean that there is not fruitful work to be done. In John 15:2, Jesus tells us that God “cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.”

Autumn calls for preparation; setting yourself up for success in the coming seasons. You harvest all the crops that you worked so hard to grow, then store and preserve the food to eat throughout the lean months. You ready the plants and fields for the next growing season. You pull out your cozy sweaters and chop the wood and tune up the furnace to make sure you can withstand that first cold snap. Like King Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 36:22, he could only enjoy the warmth of a fire in late autumn because they had properly winterized that part of the palace.

So, the next time that autumn rolls around, don’t get stuck in lamenting the passing of summer and what has been. Welcome the beauty of what is with open arms, but also be cognizant of what’s to come. Reflect on all that God has done in the previous season. Store up His goodness and abundance in your heart and mind. Let go of what is no longer needed. Be faithful in doing the work God has called you to now so that you can enjoy rest and warmth during the long, barren days of winter, and the sweetness of new growth in spring!

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13b-14)