The weather is cooler, leaves are changing colors, we’ve had to turn on the heater, the days are shorter, and we’re wearing warmer clothes. Yes, it’s a change of season and I’m excited about it. At the same time, it seems I’m in a season of change in life, and I want to be as enthusiastic about it as I am about the change in weather.
I have led various small prayer groups over the years, with differing purposes, and usually different people in each of the groups. We get to know each other by the Spirit, and sometimes the Lord draws us together into fellowship, as well. For more than five years, now, three of us have been connected in this way, even going to China together last spring. I love these two ladies dearly and trust them with my life – both spiritually and naturally. We are forever connected by the Holy Spirit.
We’ve all been aware for some time that a season of change for our prayer group was approaching; we just didn’t know the exact timing. The Lord began to prepare us a few months ago for the coming change by calling us to seek Him as to whether we were still to be a part of the group. Even though all of us recommitted fully, we knew the time was short for things to remain as they were. A few months later, the season of change is upon us, and the other two women have moved on into the next season of the Lord for them.
I am truly excited for what the Lord will do in this next season of their lives. He’s been training and preparing them during our five years together for other people who need to know Him as they do. If they didn’t move on now, in God’s perfect timing, they would stagnate, and miss ministering to and with others the Lord has put in place. They have chosen to follow His lead away from the comfortable and secure place of the familiar, into the unknown – because it’s their season of change.
Though I have loved our weekly prayer times and the regular fellowship that came from it, I am not sad. With much anticipation, I look forward to those people the Lord will bring in to replace these women of prayer. Despite the much He has already accomplished in and through us, there is still much to do in prayer for His body in preparation for Christ’s return. He’s not finished with this group, but is pruning it for greater fruitfulness in all of us, as well as grafting in new branches with whom we will wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in the heavenly realms on behalf of the body of Christ!
It’s a new season – duration unknown. I must continue to fix my trust and hope in the Lord, not in what I do or with whom I do it. I am here for His purposes in every season of life, including seasons of change. In His plan and purpose, I will forever love and treasure the people connected with me in each season. I will pour into them and allow them to pour into me as we grow in God together serving Him. When the season of change comes, I will release them and trust God as we begin all over again.
A season of change in God – how exciting!
Psalm 31:14-15 But I trust in You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hands . . .
To Make Christ Known 