Seasons of the Spirit ~ Valerie Ronald

I spent much of my life on Vancouver Island, BC, on the temperate west coast of Canada. The seasons there are less defined than other parts of the country, with rainy falls and winters blending into long, gentle springs and mild summers. Now living on the prairies, I appreciate having four defined seasons, each having distinctive traits and beauty.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven,” pens Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes (3:1). Then he lists what he perceives as the cyclical events of human life set forth in the providence of God. Birth and death, planting and uprooting, speaking and silence, war and peace˗˗all have an appointed time according to God’s purposes. “And He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

If there is a season for everything and a time for every purpose under heaven, then my spiritual life has seasons as well. My relationship with God is shaped more like an ever-widening circle than a straight line. This infinite curve is never static˗˗it undulates with the tides of growth and dormancy, mountaintop and valley, passion and complacency. I cannot say I enjoy every spiritual season, but I understand that each one is useful and necessary, and that God has a purpose for it.

In my spiritual fall season, I sense a need to prepare, storing up the things of God in my heart to be ready for whatever the future holds. As a farmer spends fall harvesting and storing his crops to prepare for winter, so God leads me to store up for myself treasures in heaven to strengthen me for the winters of my life. (Matt. 6:19-20) When I look back at difficulties I’ve experienced, I see that God often gave me a hunger to learn more and go deeper with Him in the time leading up to those difficulties. Fall can be cold and bleak, but it does not need to be barren when God provides abundant harvest for the soul to store up.

The world appears lifeless in the deep cold of winter, when in fact it is dormant, in an inactive state to survive adverse environmental conditions. There is purpose in dormancy, even dormancy of the soul. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) If all I know when my heart is cold is that God is God, then that is enough. My soul life is in spiritual dormancy, deeply hidden, inactive, yet alive all the same. When God breathes warmth back into that minuscule spark of life, my soul stirs from its hibernation, the ice of winter begins to thaw, and it is revived.

The words spring and hope go naturally together in my mind. When spring stirs, my spirit rejoices in the resurgence of life, promising hope and continuity. Spiritual hope projects all the way to eternity, not as a possibility but as a surety, an anchor for my soul, because God’s promise in Jesus Christ is not a maybe thing. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23) The hope contained in the prospect of eternal life with Christ, fulfilled in His presence, gives me joy and energy, like a spring lamb bouncing around a grassy field. The surety of hope in Him removes fear of death, opening the endless possibilities of heaven.

I live in a fruitful farming area where summer is a season of fertile land bursting with crops of vegetables and grain. I never tire of seeing the abundance of provision growing on the land. A spiritual season of fruitfulness can contain many aspects, like varied rows of vegetables in a garden. There is the personal fruit of intimacy with God, the fruit of selfless labour and sacrifice, the fruit of encouraging others in their spiritual walk, the fruit of sharing the truths of God with those who don’t know Him, and the fruit of prayers offered up for loved ones, to name a few. Spiritual fruitfulness depends on staying connected to Jesus. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4) I know I cannot be fruitful on my own, so to bear spiritual fruit in each season I must abide in Christ, whose Spirit provides all I need.

The thing about spiritual seasons is that they always come around again, each one bringing more opportunities to discover the things God has made beautiful in His time.

See the changing of the seasons. All things change in nature; so do you and the seasons of life. Embrace change! God is there in the aridity, the new beginning, the fertility and the changing colours of life. ~ Christine Adam 

  

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction, and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk.