——— Part two to my last blog: (Not) Blaming God ———
I want to encourage someone today:
Spring is coming.
Even better, Spring ALWAYS comes.
There are ALWAYS four seasons. It’s the way God created the earth, and it reveals His goodness. He brings us out of the cold, dead Winter into the cool, budding Spring, whether we acknowledge Him or not.
Winter always turns into Spring.
However, there is also a season of Spring that is supernatural – when God gives new birth to the dead things in our lives. The only difference is, instead of being a season that simply happens, this season can only be entered into if we have a heart of thanksgiving towards Him.
God loves us at all times and we can’t earn or deserve His blessings, just like we can’t earn or deserve the natural season of Spring. However, God will give more blessing to the one who not only accepts what He’s already given (the natural season of Spring), but who also thanks Him for His goodness in their own lives even if they can’t see it yet, removing every accusation from their heart that He is not good (the spiritual season of Spring).
I don’t want you to hear me wrong. It’s okay to be frustrated if you’ve been disappointed! God knows how you feel and He’s not expecting you to pretend. He desires you to process your frustration with Him because He wants to comfort you in it. What the enemy wants to do however, is make you even more frustrated by causing you to blame God, pull away from Him, and fall into a state of bitterness and depression WITHOUT His comfort. He is trying to extend a season of winter that was necessary for new growth (see Fruitful blog) into a lifetime of barrenness! God may have allowed you to walk through a difficult season for a reason you don’t understand yet, but it was NEVER His will for it to last forever. He is kind, and desires to see you grow and flourish after the Winter, but He knows that…
…a supernatural Spring can only be given if it is received.
The Israelites were promised a land of milk and honey, and were on track to receiving it. However, because they were constantly bitter thinking that God was withholding something from them, they missed the great many things He was trying to give them. They doubted His goodness and distanced themselves so far from Him that they became convinced He was never good at all.
We can’t hold onto bitterness against God in one hand, and the blessings we’re praying for in the other.
This is why I believe that most, if not all, of our Christian walk is about being convinced of God’s goodness.
If we can trust and stay thankful that God is GOOD and FOR US, everything that happens in our lives, even if doesn’t go according to our original plan, will only cause us to press into Him more. Our default reaction the moment we get frustrated and discouraged will no longer be to blame Him and wallow in self-pity and a victim mentality (trust me, I’ve been there), but to immediately run to Jesus as our Source, and receive whatever He wants to do instead. We will not let Him go until He blesses us because we will realize that, as a child of God, His goodness is our inheritance. It is undeserved and unearned, but it is ours because of what Jesus has done on The Cross for us.
If I can remember what He’s already done for me, then I can truly rest in all seasons and situations, with no fear from my past, and no fear for my future. I don’t have to be deceived, like Eve was, into thinking He is not good towards me, taking me down a darker road of frustration than necessary. I can stay thankful.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:6-7
To truly enter into the supernatural season of Spring that God wants to take you into, ask God to show you every part of your heart that ever saw Him as cruel, deceitful, or unloving towards you, and repent of it. Kill every thought that says that good seasons only happen to other people, not you. Just because you haven’t experienced them yet, doesn’t mean it’s not what God has for you.
He wants His goodness for us more than we do.
You can CHOOSE to enter into this season of Spring thanking Him in advance.
“I am confident of this: that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” – Psalm 27:13
Amanda Rassamni 