The Seasons of Life: Trusting God Through Every Change

Photo courtesy of Aaron Burden 

There is something about the beginning of fall that makes me reflective.

Maybe it is the first cool breeze after a long summer. Maybe it is watching the green leaves slowly turn shades of gold, amber, and red. Maybe it is the way the sunlight begins to look a little softer, or how the evenings arrive just a little earlier.

Fall reminds us that change can be beautiful.

And yet, when change happens in our own lives, we do not always see it that way.

We often want to hold tightly to the seasons that feel comfortable. We want the people we love to stay close. We want our plans to work out the way we imagined. We want doors to remain open, relationships to remain unchanged, and life to feel familiar.

But just as God created seasons in nature, our lives have seasons too.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

There are seasons of beginning and seasons of ending. Seasons of abundance and seasons when things feel scarce. Seasons of laughter and seasons of tears. Seasons when God seems to be opening doors everywhere we turn, and seasons when we find ourselves waiting in a hallway wondering what comes next.

Just remember, God is present in all of them.

We Aren't Meant to Stay in One Season Forever

Imagine if summer never ended. At first, we might enjoy it. Long days, warm sunshine, flowers blooming everywhere.

But eventually, the earth would suffer.

Trees need their dormant seasons. Seeds sometimes need to lie beneath the soil before they can grow. Fields need rest. Nature itself reminds us that constant production is not the way God designed His creation.

Neither is it how He designed us.

There may be a season when you are building something new. Another when you are caring for someone you love. There may be years devoted to raising children, building a career, creating a home, healing from something painful, discovering a new calling, or simply figuring out who you are becoming.

And then one day, something changes.

Sometimes we choose the change.

Sometimes we don't.

That distinction can make all the difference in how easily we accept it.

It is one thing to step willingly into a new chapter. It is quite another to have a chapter close before we were ready to finish reading it.

But a closed chapter does not mean God has finished writing your story.

Some Seasons Feel Like Growth

There are beautiful seasons when it seems as though everything is blooming.

You feel inspired. Opportunities appear. Relationships deepen. Prayers are answered. Something you have worked toward finally begins to take shape.

When those seasons come, enjoy them. Thank God for them.

We sometimes become so worried about what might happen tomorrow that we forget to receive today's blessings.

Jesus reminded us:

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” — Matthew 6:34

There will always be something we could worry about. But there will also always be something for which we can thank God.

Don't rush through the blooming seasons because you are afraid of winter. Stand in the sunshine while it is there.

Some Seasons Feel Like Waiting

Then there are the seasons when nothing seems to be happening.

You pray.

You wait.

You try.

You wait some more.

Perhaps you have asked God for direction and still do not know which way to go. Maybe you are waiting for circumstances to change, for an opportunity to arrive, for a relationship to heal, or for an answer that simply has not come.

Waiting can feel like wasted time.

But throughout Scripture, waiting is often where God does some of His deepest work.

A seed beneath the soil does not look particularly impressive. From above ground, it may appear that nothing is happening at all. But underneath the surface, something is changing. Roots are forming before anything ever breaks through the ground. 

Many seasons of our lives are like that. We cannot see what God is preparing because the work is happening somewhere we cannot yet see.

Isaiah 40:31 says:

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

Waiting on God does not mean doing nothing. You are continuing to pray, continuing to trust, continuing to be faithful with what is already in front of us, and allowing God to determine when the next door should open.

Some Seasons Require Letting Go

Autumn gives us one of nature's most beautiful pictures of surrender.

The trees let go. They do not desperately hold onto every leaf because those leaves were once beautiful. They release them because their season has ended.

There are things in our lives that we may have to release too.

Old dreams.

Old expectations.

Relationships that have changed.

Plans that didn't happen.

Versions of ourselves that no longer fit who God is calling us to become.

Letting go doesn't mean something didn't matter. Sometimes something can have been deeply meaningful and still belong to another season of our lives.

There is a difference between honoring the past and trying to live there.

We can thank God for what was while still trusting Him with what will be.

And Some Seasons Feel Like Winter

Winter seasons can be difficult.

These are the seasons of grief, loneliness, disappointment, uncertainty, or exhaustion. They can make us wonder where God is.

But when a tree stands bare in January, it isn't dead. It is resting. Life is still there even when we cannot see evidence of it.

You may not see what God is doing right now.

You may not understand why something happened.

You may not know what comes next.

Faith does not require us to pretend that difficult things aren't difficult. Faith allows us to say, “Lord, I don't understand this season, but I trust that You are still here.”

Psalm 46:1 says:

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Not only in the good seasons or only when prayers are answered the way we hoped. And not only when life makes sense.

He is present in the winter too.

Spring Always Reminds Us That God Can Make Things New

Then, after months of bare trees and cold ground, something remarkable happens.

A tiny green shoot appears.

A bud forms on a branch.

Birdsong returns.

And slowly what looked lifeless begins to live again.

Spring is a reminder that God specializes in new beginnings.

Isaiah 43:19 says:

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?”

Sometimes the new thing God brings will look nothing like the thing we lost.

We may ask God to restore something exactly as it was, while He may be leading us toward something entirely different.

New things often require courage.

Don't Compare Your Season to Someone Else's

One of the easiest ways to become discouraged is to look at someone else's life and wonder why ours doesn't look the same.

Someone else may be celebrating while you are grieving.

Someone else may be beginning while you are ending.

Someone else may seem to be racing ahead while you feel as though you are standing still.

But you wouldn't look at a tree covered in autumn leaves and criticize it because the tree beside it is still green. They are simply in different places in the process, and so are we.

God's work in someone else's life does not diminish His work in yours. Your timeline does not have to look like anyone else's.

Ask What This Season Is Teaching You

Perhaps instead of continually asking, “When will this season be over?” we can sometimes ask:

“Lord, what do You want me to learn while I am here?”

Maybe this is a season of learning patience, rebuilding, creating, caring for others, healing.

Maybe it is a season of resting after years of carrying too much, or a season of finally stepping into something God has been quietly placing on your heart.

We do not always recognize the purpose of a season while we are living through it.

Sometimes we understand it only when we look back.

God Is the Constant Through Every Season

The older I get, the more I realize how much life changes.

Places change.

People change.

Our bodies change.

Families change.

Dreams change.

Priorities change.

Even the person looking back at us in the mirror changes.

But the constant is that God never does.

Hebrews 13:8 says:

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

When everything around us feels uncertain, God remains steady.

When we don't know what the next season holds, we know Who will be there when it arrives.

We don't know every answer. We can't see the entire road.

We don't need to hold back the tears from the hurt.

We do need to trust.

Whatever Season You're In Today

As the leaves begin to change and another autumn has now arrived, maybe you can take a moment to notice them. Let them remind you that change isn't always something to fear. Some things must fall away before something new can grow.

Is this your season for blooming, planting, harvesting, resting?

Are you holding onto God's hand through it all?

Whatever season you are walking through today, you don't have to have everything figured out. You only need enough faith for today. The God who walked with you through yesterday's season is already waiting for you in the next one.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1

XO, Marie