“You give me seasons of hope deferred just to be with You because You are my King.”

 

IT HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN ONE MONTH SINCE THE SEASONS EP WAS RELEASED ON ALL MAJOR PLATFORMS!!!!

 

If you haven’t listened to Seasons yet – feel free to check it out on iTunes, Amazon, or Spotify!  Buy it if you love it and want to support future albums!  🙂

 

A little back story on the song choices of the EP…

I really struggled with knowing what songs to put on #theseasonsep in the beginning.  I originally wanted to do a full-length album, and had many songs I could have chosen from, but I decided to record the song Seasons first by faith with Caleb Connaway in October 2017 in order to simply get started.  I had no idea how to fully move forward and had been disappointed in recording processes before, so didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew at the time.  However, I knew that God would honor my obedience and give me the next steps once I acted (hopefully this encourages you in your creative projects as well!).

After the song was done, as I was praying and intentionally asking the Lord what to do next, I felt Him highlight three of my other songs so clearly to me.  He showed me that out of all of my songs, four though written separately in 2011, ‘12, ‘13, and ‘16 had the word “seasons” in the lyrics (ok, I changed a word in one, but it made more sense)!  😉  In that moment, I knew that He had just given me the song list.

The songs are, in order:
Seasons
Hope Deferred
Just to be with You
You are my King

God then spoke this phrase to me out of the song list as a summary of what the album is about:

 

“You give me seasons of hope deferred just to be with You because You are my King.”

 

This phrase means so much to me because it depicts so clearly that in seasons when what we were dreaming of and believing God for is put on hold, He makes us wait simply so we can BE WITH HIM.  He is not cruel to do this because He is a good and righteous, loving King, and He knows far greater than us that to be with Him is better than anything.  He is the Point of the journey.  He is the Sum of all of our dreams.  🙂  That being said, here is a little bit of my journey with the songs on this EP, and a short story about each.

 

Seasons

“We’re coming out of this one fast; we’re accelerating seasons. We won’t be heartbroken for long. Feel that peace, hear that laughing! Get up and start dancing! For time is moving along; this is life’s song.” 

Seasons, the 1st song on the Seasons EP, was written in 2011 out of Ecclesiastes 3 in 10 minutes, but it started well before.  When I was in middle school, there was a night that I cried by myself for hours and couldn’t stop.  I had a broken heart and felt I couldn’t get any relief…until I asked God to speak to me.  I opened my Bible and it fell directly to Ecclesiastes 3.  I then began crying tears of peace and joy as the Holy Spirit spoke to me “to everything there is a season” – even this pain that you feel is an indication that good is coming.  God allowed this in your story so He can make good out of it.  He is taking you from season to season and glory to glory, and it will be faster than you think.  He is accelerating your seasons as you put your trust in Him.  He is faithful to bring beauty out of your pain and suffering, and none of it was in vain; rather, it is going to be a further and greater testimony of the goodness of God in your life.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1

 

Hope Deferred

“You are not a God who withholds good from me, and I cannot accuse You of wrongdoing. Oh, how precious are the seasons that I choose to cling to You, cause You’re doing more than I imagined You would do.”

Hope Deferred, the 2nd song on the Seasons EP, was written in 2016 out of a season of pain, disappointment, and disillusionment with God.  I had trusted Him with all of my dreams and plans and thought that everything was falling into place until He allowed me to walk through a time of ALL of those dreams and plans dying and falling to the ground.  When you trusted God for something and He gave it and THEN took it away, you have to really fight to not be bitter towards Him. He opened my eyes in that season however to see His love in the dreams I was hoping for being put on hold.  What I thought was Him taking from me was actually Him giving to me: more comfort, more healing, more of His Presence, more of His love.

Proverbs 13:12 says that hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. I find it very interesting that a desire fulfilled is a tree of life – the very thing that Jesus died to let us take part in (eternal and abundant life in Him). This tells me that He wants the dreams He put inside you more than you do. Hope deferred is not really hope deferred if what you thought you wanted wasn’t for you. He only takes so He can give more.

“‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” – Job 1:21:22

 

Just to be with You

“As I cling steadfastly to You, every fear and doubt just slips away; they slip away. And I believe You when You say the seasons I can see are temporary. You are eternity. Oh Lord, to whom else would I go? I want to be with You, just to be with You.”

Just to be with You, the third song on the Seasons EP, was written on my first day of college in 2013.  I used to be afraid that I could leave the Lord.  Like the disciples in John 6:60-66, I feared that I would be offended by something He did or said and choose to walk away…but then He captured my heart.  He showed me that it’s easy to cling to Him because He really is that good.  As I cling steadfastly to Him, EVERY fear and doubt just slips away – even the fear that I am strong enough to leave Him in a difficult season in my life.  I have made my choice, no matter what.  He keeps me, and I don’t have to be afraid anymore.  There truly is no one else and nothing else I’d rather do than be with Him.

“Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ But Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” – John 6:67-69

 

You are my King

“I have no good beside or beyond You. You are my portion. You are my breakthrough. So all I am is all about You, King of the Universe.” 

You are my King is the 4th song on the Seasons EP.  I wrote it on my first day of college in 2012, when my season felt like a drudgery, to remind my soul to delight in the Lord.  He does not see me as a failure in slow seasons…I’m just growing.  I’m not just going to be stay with Him through every season.  I’m going to worship Him through every season, because that is what He is worthy of.  🙂

“I say to the Lord, You are my Lord; I have no good beside or beyond You…the Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage. I will bless the Lord Who has given me counsel, yes my heart instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved…You will show me the path of life; in Your Presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:2, 5-11

 

If any of these songs have meant something personally to you, I would LOVE to hear from you.  Please know that throughout this whole entire process, I have been praying for you, the listener, to be filled with hope and touched by God in whatever season you find yourself in.  It blows me away when God shows me the answer to these prayers.  Keep trusting, keep worshiping, and keep hoping in Him!  God bless you!

 

Blog Pic: Shot by Rosie Delacruz; Graphic Design by Mateo Boyd