By Kirsten Mount
When we first put up our Christmas decorations, our 1-year old son was completely amazed. He ran around the house pointing at every new item in our house and continued to wake up every morning, squealing and pointing downstairs so he could run around and see everything again. Our morning routine began to be saying hi to Alphie, our elf on the shelf, saying hi to all the people in the Christmas cards hanging on the wall, playing the song on the singing snowman decorations, looking at all the lights on the tree and holding each character in our nativity set. The excitement lasted a good few weeks, however, I noticed that over the last two weeks or so, the Christmas decorations began to fade back into the background and our son wasn’t quite as enthralled everyday by the exciting new features. They just began to be part of normal life and we all stopped noticing them. As I packed up all our decorations just a few days ago, I was sad to see them go, but knew that putting them away for a time is necessary so that we can experience the wonder again next Christmas.
Life is full of seasons, and if we don’t flex with them, we risk getting stuck in monotony.
At the end of 2020, my husband and I took some time to pray and ask God for a family verse for 2021. We felt God leading us to Isaiah 28: 23-29. Verse 24 says, “Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?” The point of the passage is that we should not plow forever! After you plow for a season, you must stop and begin to sow, and then, after a time of sowing, you must change again and begin to harvest.
This instantly stuck out to me. It is so easy for me to get so stuck in my routines that I just end up doing the same things over and over again, and then wonder why my life seems so boring or lacking in fruit, growth and excitement. I realized that this could be because I am still plowing in a season when I should be sowing.
God intentionally creates seasons and changes things up so that we have to rely on him and not just on the systems and structures we create. As humans, we love to figure out formulas for how things work, and yet this can be dangerous because it can cause us to trust in the formula rather than staying connected to God. Could it be that we have gotten so stuck in the way we have always done things, that we are missing out on the harvest that God intends for us to reap? If you have seen God move in a situation in the past, it is so easy to just keep doing the same things over and over again, hoping to experience the same result, but God often has a new and different strategy this time for a breakthrough. He rarely works the same way twice, because once again, he wants us to stay connected to Him.
So how do we know when it is time to change things up? How do we know when it is time to stop sowing, and start reaping? I love how the passage continues. In verse 26, it says, “For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.”
His God teaches him. I love that the passage doesn’t simply expect the farmer to figure out on his own when it is time to do something different and change things up. It says that God is teaching him, and if God could do it then with farmers, he can do it now in our lives.
In John 21, there is a story about when the disciples were trying to catch fish and they kept fishing all night and yet never caught anything. Then, Jesus showed up, and told them to cast their nets on the right side, and all of a sudden there were too many fish to even pull into the boat. They were stuck and needed someone to step in and give them a fresh idea. Jesus loves to teach us when we invite him! We might have no idea how to get breakthrough in an area and feel like we have tried everything, and he might say something as simple as…try fishing on the right side of the boat.
Are there areas in your life right now that feel…dead, stuck, unfruitful or just boring? Maybe it is in your marriage, work, ministry, relationship with God, relationships with your children or a situation with a friend or family member. So often we are encouraged to just keep pushing on and doing the same things. We are taught that it is biblical to be faithful and persistent – and while there are times for that, there are also times to stop plowing and start harvesting.
Take some time to ask God to bring a specific situation to mind, and then ask him what season you are in. Maybe he wants you to keep plowing and faithfully doing the same things, or maybe he will give you an idea of something new or different you could do to change things up. It might be the tiniest thing, such as getting a sitter and adding in a date night, having a tough conversation or giving an encouraging word… or it might be something bigger, like changing up leadership, moving or finding a new community. Whatever it is, remember, God is the best teacher!!
John 3:8 says, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” I love that God chooses to describe following Him like following the wind. We cannot follow Him based on our own plan, map or predictions, or we will miss where He is going. We must stay in tune with him 24/7, so that when he turns, we turn as well and don’t just keep going straight ahead.
May 2021 be a year where we are in tune with the God of freshness, newness and breakthroughs!
“For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.” – Isaiah 28:25
Kirsten is a wife to David and mom to Isaac and soon-to-be new baby brother! She lived in China for five years and taught math for eight, and now spends her time chasing Isaac around the house and pursuing a variety of passion projects. She loves a good cup of coffee which unfortunately is limited to decaf until her baby arrives in June.
