What season are you in?

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-14)

God had a plan for Jesus’ life, and He has a plan for our lives, too. Here, He sent an angel to give Joseph instructions to move the young Jesus out of harm’s way.

God did not send us a physical angel with directions to move here to Tennessee. But I believe He watches over our lives just as carefully as He watched over Jesus. He has determined the specifics of our birth and the different seasons in which we will live. He has given us wisdom and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us chart a course through life. It is up to us to make peace with that and accept God’s invitations. He has given us a choice: We can resent our circumstances, or we can trust God to use all that has brought us to this point to form our character into something that is useful for Him.

Does that mean you are where you are at for the rest of your life? Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s incumbent on us to seek from God the answer to that question. As I look back over my life, I see seasons that certainly seemed like “this was it” and where I thought I would be planted for a long time, only to see in hindsight it was a shorter season to prepare me for the next one.

Some of those seasons were great, and others were hard. God is in control of all our circumstances, and we must live our lives with that thought in mind. He has us where we, even if only for a season.

What if things are not so great? To paraphrase Job, are we to accept just the good things that happen to us in life, or do we recognize that ALL comes from Him? 

No matter what happens today or in the future, He is working to bring us closer to Him and His plans and purposes.