Her Season is Not Your Season

​There are principles in God’s Kingdom. They are rules that dictate how life in the Kingdom operates.

Think of a mathematical rule: 
a2 + b2 = c2

It works. Every single time.

Not all that into math? Me either. Here’s a life rule for example:
If we eat more calories than we burn, we gain weight.
Vice versa, if we eat less calories than we burn, we lose weight.

Make sense?

One Kingdom principle Jesus taught is this:
When we put the Kingdom of God first, He takes care of all our needs (Matt. 6:31-33). Like the pythagorean theorem, I don’t have to understand how it works to know that it just works. (Praise Jesus for that!)

There’s another Kingdom principle I’ve been mulling over for quite some time now:
When we are rooted in trust in the Lord (not in ourselves), our lives will never fail to bear fruit.

Fruit is what others "taste" and experience God’s goodness. Jesus made it very clear: the Father is looking for fruit. In fact, it was for this very reason that He chose us (Jn. 15). But the fruit production is not our part— it's His. Our job is to stay rooted in Him.

Jeremiah 17 (one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible) says, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8, emphasis added).

I used to read that last line of Jeremiah 17 and take it to mean that if I’m truly rooted in Christ, I should always be producing. Maybe you’ve felt that way too. We (people) are really good at adding demands on ourselves that God never really asked for. (Just take the Pharisees for example.)

One day, on a walk to the nearby lake, I was lamenting to God about how fruitless I felt during that time, and the guilt I carried because of it. As I walked and prayed, I gazed at the towering trees. It was winter; they were barren. Or at least they looked barren. Inside I knew there was life getting ready to burst forth in due time.

It was then I realized, with the Holy Spirit’s help, the error of my mindset. He connected a natural principle with a Kingdom principle to reveal a truth I almost missed: Trees don’t bear fruit in every season. But they do bear fruit in their season.

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"Trees don't bear fruit in every season.
​But they do bear fruit in their season."

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I’m recognizing a huge downside to social media is the tendency to compare (whether we are aware of it or not). I recently taught at a girls camp, and we tackled this big temptation. I shared with them that when we compare, it has one of two outcomes: either we end up on top (filled with pride), or we end up on the bottom (feeling less-than). Neither is life-giving.

The problem with comparison is that we are all different “trees” that bear fruit in different seasons. Your season is not my season. My season is not your season. God is sovereign over our seasons, and our part is to simply stay rooted and entrust the timing to Him.

​It is May and, in my yard, there are bushes that are just now budding while other flowers have already bloomed and gone away! However, I don’t see the daffodils out there striving to keep up with the magnolias. Neither, friend, should we.

What area of your life are you feeling the pressure to perform, when God is calling you to rest in trust?

The ministry that I lead, Rooted Moms, experienced an extremely fruitful season earlier this year; now, we’re in a season of rest. If I’m not careful, I can look at all the other ministries' fruit and get busy striving to keep up. If I pressure myself and my team to perform from our own ability, we miss the preparation work God wants to do in us. Striving saps the nutrients and strength we need for when our season comes.
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"Striving saps the nutrients and strength we need for when our season comes."

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​Oh, how I wish I understood this truth earlier in life. Friend, whatever fruit you are waiting on, make the decision today to rest in God’s work and timing.

If you need to borrow some faith today, go read the story of Joseph starting in Genesis 37. Though it doesn’t say so, I’m certain Joseph struggled to stay hands-off and trust what God was doing. Joseph, however, stayed rooted… and the fruit came. Big fruit. Fruit that preserved a nation and set the world up for an unprecedented display of God’s glory.

We can take God’s Kingdom principles to the bank. When we do what only we can do (rest in trust and obedience), God does what only He can do— make the fruit come in due time.