Cling to Jesus
We feel the sharp change in seasons here in Ohio.
Sunny days filled with vibrant, fall colors seem to end overnight, ushering in cold winds that are only slightly improved by the occasional snow flurries.
Seasons of our life can often ebb and flow in less noticeable ways.
As a wife and mom to four kids, it’s easy for me to let daily details drown out the bigger picture. I can make sure my son’s basketball uniform is clean and that my daughter’s flute is in her backpack, but yet feel perplexed as to why I feel low-grade anxiety and rumblings of discontentment. No matter what life-details God has sovereignly chosen for you, we all share a common reality: life is a series of season-changes, and our only hope for true joy and peace through them is to cling to Jesus.
I’m often tempted to run to the broken cisterns of productivity or accomplishments for my sense of worth. Like scooping cupfuls of sand, I hope to find purpose and fulfillment in tasks completed or in people’s approval. But they will always leave me thirsty still.
Jesus told the woman at the well that she could drink Living Water and never thirst again. He drank the cup of God’s wrath toward sin all the way down to the dregs, so that we would be spared from it. He became our sin and our shame so that in him we could be free, healed, and declared righteous. Jesus said, “I am thirsty” as he hung on the cross (John 19:28), just before he declared once and for all, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus has already accomplished everything our souls need to be satisfied and set free.
My life’s seasons will change. All of ours will. There will be parenting days marked more by frustration than laughter. My ministry through writing will feel stagnant and unfruitful. I will work, unseen, in my home and battle feeling insignificant. Friendships will have seasons of loneliness, when I wonder if people truly know me and love me. But these seasons won’t last forever! And there is a steady anchor through them all.
The truth is that every season is a gift—even the really hard ones that we would never include on our wish-list. They’re gifts because God uses them for our sanctification—to make us more and more like his Son. They’re gifts because they make us more dependent on him. They force us to cling to him and drive us back to the only true source of life, the Living Water we actually need. Himself. And we can rest there, because Jesus never changes.
James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (ESV)
Even when life’s seasons change around us, or we feel shadows of change within us, we can cling to God’s promises because they are rooted in his character. When we have trusted in Christ’s work alone for our salvation, we are a new creation. We see that God has woven season change into his creation for a purpose, and we can trust his good design.
Because of Jesus I don’t have to fear life’s changes. I can welcome them, as I sit securely at his table (Ephesians 2:4-7), and remember that he alone is my source of identity.
One day we’ll be with him face to face, free from every effect of sin. Until then we cling to him, which is only possible because he’s first clinging to us. His faithful grip is unchanging, no matter the season.
