New season, new assignment, new blessings…
Closed doors, transitions, and uncertainty are thankfully all universal experiences. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s life; in nature, discomfort bears growth. New season. New assignment. New blessings. Seasons exist for a reason, and there is a time for everything (Ecclesiastes 3:1). What God has planned for His servants no eye has seen, nor ear has heard. The great things God has prepared are beyond our understanding. Even when we face uncertainty, trust that God knows best! God will never allow us to go through something without purpose unless we think we can handle it without Him. Spoiler alert: we can’t. But with the Lord, when we face challenges, they are never wasted (Genesis 41:52, Psalm 34:17). What a faithful and patient God!
When a season ends, one door closes, and the next may not open right away. Even though it can be uncomfortable or sometimes painful when we desperately need relief and a breakthrough, remember that God isn’t punishing you with patience. He is teaching you, preparing you, and shaping you to be the right fit for what he has destined for you. We can’t expect blessings to fall right into your lap without knowing how to steward the blessing or the gift He has. Mismanaging these blessings becomes dangerous not only for you but for others (Deuteronomy 28:15-18, 1 Samuel 2:12-3, Luke 12:16-21). These scriptures are just a few examples of mismanaged blessings that reaped curses upon themselves and family mainly due to disobedience.
A wise parent would never give you something that you are ill-equipped to use. This would then render the gift useless. If they’re actively guiding you through its use or gifted you the item when you gained knowledge and maturity, not only is the lesson borne to be fruitful, the tool is now ready because you’re ready. Congratulations youve now completed the assignment. Now on to the next. In times we hold fast to the blessing, clenching our grip and not releasing it to the Lord when he owns you, and the gift you may find yourself hindering its potential. Not only did you cling to it, but you also made it your identity. Now it’ll be hard to move on to the next season when God calls you out of this one, and you’re worried about trying to secure your blessings, and moving in silence when you’re your own blessing blocker!
- This falls into a lot of categories of sin here we see idolatry (idolizing your gift, and making comfort, convenience your idol and self-invention), pride (boastful of blessings, trying to be in control, self-reliance, self- promotion) fear (clinging to the past, anxiety about future and futile things), coveting (the past, old self, people, relationships) and unbelief (little to no faith)
With the blessing comes heaviness and sometimes pain. A pressure to carry when God enlarges your territory, and the wisdom to steward it well. That is a job we weren’t created to do alone; we were created for community. I can tell you now that what you’re doing, or have been doing, is not all God has for you, but you haven’t allowed him to work through you because you operate with control, pride, maybe some shame, distrust, and passive faith. To have active faith and trust in God’s plan, obedience is a core spiritual discipline that believers should make a goal to consistently practice.
To see and want change, understand that growth and the ability to receive what God has in store takes humility. For him to work, you have to accept the invitation that’s been waiting for you and allow your faith to be childlike, with eagerness, genuineness, and teachability (Matthew 18:3-4). This shifts your faith from you doing God’s job to actually being obedient to his will and the plans he has for you as a child of God. To be eager, genuine, and teachable separates believers who develop maturing fruit from those who remain comfortable and, unfortunately, stagnant due to the lack of intimacy, fear, and reverence for the Lord. The Lord desires us to acquire these qualities to maintain an intimate relationship with him. To maintain any relationship, you need care/concern, respect, or thought, to desire and make an effort to communicate or spend time with them. To maintain a healthy relationship, it takes work on both ends. Then you’ll see stability, growth, and fruitfulness depending on what you sow.
Selah.
- What is the first thought you had in the morning? What is the first thing you do? When your feet hit the ground, what attitude do you carry into your day, and do you think about how you want your day to be? We aren’t in control of circumstances, the environment, or times, but we are in control of our thoughts, emotions, and actions (how we treat ourselves or others).
After you answered those questions, are you satisfied? Or just content or comfortable because that’s safe? Or do you actually believe God has more for you? If you don’t care, at least you realize you don’t care, and not caring won’t result in change, and if change scares you, then start there. Surrender that to God. Invite him in. He’s been pursuing you all along. He doesn’t hate you; he allowed what happened to show you that you can’t do it on your own and that you need him and only him (John 15:5). The peace you crave, look above, the love you’ve been longing for, it’s Jesus, the healing, the breakthrough, the blessings, whatever it is, let him strip your desire of everything you thought to be true, and let him show you the one who is faithful and true. The Lord is patient, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103:8), a mighty God who is a God of war and justice for his beloved servants (Psalm 97:10), who seeks his face, keeps his commands being led by his spirit daily and walking in the fruits of the spirit, sharing their gifts and God’s love to others. Walking with God isn’t easy, but so worth it.
Be open-minded, adaptable, flexible, like new wineskins made for fresh wine; old wineskins are brittle, rigid, and impractical, unfit to store new wine.
Synonyms for someone/something being unusable:
- Unteachable, uncooperative, unyielding, unmalleable, and fixed
Let God open those doors, open the horizon for you to see, and pour out new wine. Let your cup overflow! Do you think God, the God of the impossible, has more in store for you? Or do you settle because you think this is all you can get? Ask the Lord for your cup to overflow with whatever you’re seeking (strength, peace, love, healing, etc.) and learn to receive.
You can stay somewhere all your life and, without Jesus, see little to no growth, experience hardships, loneliness, loss, and a calloused heart. With the Lord, we sometimes still go through the same circumstances, but can still see stupendous growth because of Jesus. You can physically be or feel stuck, but with Jesus, the progress you make is like leaps and bounds. Of course, it can take time, but God will restore the years you feel robbed of (Joel 2:28), and not only experience God’s restoration but come out of every situation wiser and unscathed!
Scars are proof that the wounds healed, it’s a new season, and a testament to the one with nail-scarred hands and feet that defeated sin and death! Hallelujah!
God has so much in store for you! Will you invite him on the journey and commit to the entire ride? And remember, let your yes be “yes”, and no be “no”! Be sure of what you ask, don’t ask small because no matter what, God is sure about you, and nothing is too hard for him!. The Lord is steadfast, and his presence isn’t thwarted by your absence. God is with you always. Let him transform you to be unrecognizable, ask him to prepare you for big blessings, for open doors, and breakthrough and receive his favor, love, joy, and peace!
Luke 5:37-39
“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. The new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out. Otherwise, the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.”
Let us pray,
Abba God, we thank you that we can come into your presence as we are, and we come humbly before you with a seeking, whole heart, entering this new season. We enter into every season with praise in the midst of uncertainty. We thank you that you are patient and faithful. Please forgive us for the times we judged prematurely, blocked our blessings, and hindered our growing fruit because we stepped in the way. We confess that sometimes it’s uncomfortable when we don’t know what’s going on, and at times our impatience grows. Father, let us not make haste even in times of excitement when your perfect plan is revealed to us. God, you say, “you are doing something new, do we not perceive it?” We want you to do a new thing in our lives, and we surrender to you as a living sacrifice. Help us lose the grip of control, release our old wineskins (habits, thought/speech patterns) and anything that doesnt honor you.
Help us to be humble, sincere in spirit and truth in everything we do, like the little children who enter your kingdom. Let us truly be transformed by the renewing of our mind, letting your word marinate and transform us, giving us a youthful vigor. May it be so that we don’t look like the hardships we experience, but make us like new wine. New wine with new wineskins, and let us not misuse these blessings but steward them in ways that point to Jesus to glorify you!
In this new season, we pray against any spirit of setback, control, discontentment, delay, and distraction in Jesus name. Remove any unbelief hindering our progress and make us bold and firm in faith and your peace guarding our hearts and mind. Thank you Lord in Jesus mighty name, Amen!