Surrendering To New Seasons

“The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go…’” Deut.1:6

Freedom from a tough season in our lives can be very intimidating even if that season has been extremely difficult. We adapt to whatever life throws at us and develop a recovery plan for “a new kind of normal”. So when God has determined it is time for us to “turn, set your journey and go” it can be just as scary as the wilderness itself. I am experiencing this type of freedom at this point in my life.

As many of you are aware, three years ago my husband and I relocated his father and mother-in-law after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s for his father. We have spent the last three years setting up their lives 10 minutes from us, establishing the best doctors, along with helping them create a new life for themselves. It has been both rewarding and grueling at the same time and has taken a great deal of sacrifice, patience and endurance but their new life has finally gotten nicely established. They have a place in Boone to which they have always retreated in the summer months. I received a letter a month ago telling us that they have decided to move up there full time and they are putting their home near us on the market immediately.

My initial reaction was shock but very quickly was replaced with peace and felt like God had intervened. Over the next couple weeks bitterness and sadness set in like a dark cloud. I began feeling as if every sacrifice I had made over the past three years was in vain. I had to spiritual work to do….

Over the past week God has spoken consistently and loudly through His word that He is setting me free and giving me a new life. His spirit has touched mine with love, approval and completion. I kept returning to the victim mode feeling like someone had done something to me, thereby blocking His peace and His approval that He wanted me to experience. I finally heard loud and clear from Him once and for all, “No one has done this to you, I have done this for you!”

“In our walks with the LORD we will discover moments when a season of camping out in the foothills of Sinai ends and we are compelled to take what we’ve gathered and move forward. When our souls begin to stir and the Holy Spirit begins gently nudging us to turn, set a new journey, and go, we can know that God is moving us to a new place in our relationship with Him.” Priscilla Shirer, One In A Million, p. 107.

Surrendering to new seasons allow us to leave one experience at the base of His mountain, accept His will to turn and set our journeys on another and to make the steps necessary to walk towards our promised lands.