Autumn Brings Change

 

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall"
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Job 14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Change. Seasons change and with them life.  Life comes with many seasons.  We live in a world of change.  Every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a Supreme Power, and we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed for us.

Autumn is a season of change, transition and renewal.  Everything is dying.  But too, if you notice, Autumn brings such beautiful colors.  As their bright green colors fade, the leaves eventually turn to such brilliant colors of crimson, gold, red and orange, offering us a wonderful spectacle to behold, a brushstroke of genius only God can artfully paint.  Then, those leaves must fall, leaving that beautiful tree bare and vulnerable as it must survive the harshest of seasons.  It seems they fall almost as quickly as they change.  The tree must go through that season to begin a new life, a new cycle, with budding blossoms fragrant and beautiful.  In order to flourish into a new season, the trees must let go of its decayed leaves.  The leaves fall from their branches as the wind sweeps in.  The swirling leaves are stirred by the wind as they fall.  The change is happening.  The transition has come.  The renewal is essential.

For us, this season of life can be the hardest.  It moves us into a real cold time.  Autumn is a short time for us, yet it brings major changes.  Change is hard, but there is beauty there that we do not yet see.  The air gets cold around us and there has to be a dying out to life at this time.  Just as the trees must let go of their decayed leaves, we must let go of any unnecessary weight in our lives.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

What are you holding on to that may be preventing a freshness to the new season ahead?  What is hindering your fresh relationship with God? Let it go!

All glory comes then when you dare to begin, dare to change, ushering in each new season, and forever trusting God with each unpredictable new step.  Never stop believing and growing.  We can never fully know what God's intentions are for us, but we can always do our absolute best with where He has placed us right now.  Only then, when we have learned all there is to learn and are truly grateful in this place, this season, will God move us to a new, more bountiful, and blessed season.

Get ready.  The windy time it brings sort of just sweeps us into our next season.  But no worries, this next season brings clarity.

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

Connie J. Schmoll

Troubled Waters

I was reading in John 5:1-9 about the man who was healed by Jesus at the Pool of Bethesda. There were a multitude of sick folk there waiting for the moving of the water. At a certain season, it was believed that when an angel went down into the pool and troubled the water, the first to step in was healed of their sickness.

 

The Pool of Bethesda had a strong attraction. When the water was troubled, the first to DO this – step into the water – they would be healed.

 

I believe that God will “trouble our waters” just to get us to the place He needs us to be. It isn't about the pool at all. Think about this: When the waters are troubled, the ships have to seek out a port, a place of safety very quickly or risk being capsized. For us, when difficult situations (troubled waters) arise, we run to God, or to someone who knows God and ask for prayer. Because we know it is GOD who is our Refuge and Strength.

 

Check out Psalm 46:1-3. I got excited when God led me to this portion of Scripture. I thought...wow! Fits perfectly.

 

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though THE WATERS THEREOF ROAR AND BE TROUBLED, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”

 

In this story, it seems Jesus was there to heal this one man, yet I believe that many others left healed as well – not by the “troubling of the waters” in the pool, but by the powerful spoken words of Jesus.

 

Under the shelter of religion, there are the sick, lame and blind who can't be healed unless they do a work, walking into the pool, dipping themselves. They are helpless and hopeless, so near the pool. But Jesus has none of the Law's requirements to put upon us for our healing, only to believe in the One who is greater than angels. Just as this man and many others, we look for our healing from outside circumstances, instead of seeking the Healer. People travel here and there, to this event and that conference, seeking their healing, instead of seeking The Healer!

 

We sit on our mat, self-imprisoned by the circumstances of our life, waiting for them to change, when what needs changed is within. Jesus doesn't change our circumstance. He changes us. He calls us into a new way of being, seeing, acting, speaking and thinking. It makes our circumstances more manageable and we engage them from a different place and position. “The Pool of Bethesda” is drained of its power over us. There is freedom, where once was imprisonment.

 

Are you sitting on your mat just waiting on things to change? Are you constantly looking for “a pool of Bethesda”? Are you constantly seeking your healing? Seek Your Healer!

 

STAND UP, TAKE YOUR MAT AND WALK!

 

*I included the song, "Bridge Over Troubled Water". I still can't believe that after GOD gave me this thought, this song then played one day over the Christian radio station! GOD IS GOOD! 

 

 

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER by Simon & Garfunkel