For Every Season
By Rosie Short
I spent a long time this morning thinking about my life being like a field, sensing a barrenness and wondering how do I begin to change the stubble of the last harvest into a flourishing new growth?
I have a son, big chap, who drives combines and tractors pulling all sorts of massive machinery which he uses in its season to prepare the fields ready for the next crop; ploughing, cultivating, fertilising, harvesting every thing in its time to produce ‘fruit’.
I considered the season just gone, the field left with stubble, finished its work and now no good!
Not at all! That stubble has to be ploughed in, deep under the sod, to rot and die providing nutrients for the new season, the new planting, the new harvest! There is hardly a moment between putting away the combine to bringing out the plough, mustn’t let the weeds take hold!
All those things of the past, whether right or wrong must be buried and covered over so we can continue to follow the plough, looking forward and giving no recall to past mistakes which can drag us down or even the successes which can puff us up and inhibit the opportunities for development! Plough it all under the soil dear friends and instead leave behind you straight furrows ready for new planting.
I was asking the Lord how did this preparation begin with us and having the word ‘furrow’ in my mind I remembered the furrows on the back of our dear Lord Jesus as He took the punishment for our sins on Himself, His blood cleansed us from ALL sin.
There was my answer, He has prepared our field through the sacrifice of His life, His precious blood poured out over our sinful nature has made us ready, cleansing the soil and causing us to live again. He has and is making us fit for all the seasons of our lives, and these seasons will come and go and come again, because He is faithful!
His Word (remembering also that He is the Word. John 1:1) is the soil of our lives and His love is the plough which has to turn us over each season, enabling us to start over again and again as He changes the stubble of the past into the nutrient for future growth and harvest!
I think that heavy old plough must shake the very ground it crosses after the reaping and summer sun have baked it so hard. When we think we’ve done it all and perhaps a little crusty and tired in ourselves, that plough is desperately needed to start the new season of harvest ahead of us.
So I remind myself again today that He is the One lovingly ploughing up my dry ground, and is the earth shaking in the doing of it? yes it is!
Has He cleansed the ground in which I shall grow and live day by day? Yes once and forever through His blood shed for me! .
Am I safe in the Ploughman’s hands? Yes I am!
Will there be a harvest in the next season of my life? Yes there will because He is faithful!
So follow the plough dear friends!
Let us run together! Song of Sol. 1:4
“Set your minds on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory’ Col.3:2-4
What a harvest that will be!
Rosie