One of the things I love about living in the Washington, DC area is the beauty of the four seasons. We get them all—Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. Each has it’s own enchantment and attraction. And if you get tired of one, just wait a bit and eventually a new season will arrive.
Success in life involves an understanding of seasons. It’s something lots of people never really think about. A successful life or enterprise is not only about your skills, abilities and knowledge; it’s also about your timing! Doing the right thing at the wrong time can be unproductive and even potentially disastrous.
To experience the best for your life you must become a student of seasons. You must not only know how to recognize them but also how to appropriately work them.
The Bible talks a lot about seasons. It describes some of the activities that are required for success in the various seasons of life. Because of the agrarian culture of biblical times, most references to seasons focus on the farming cycles of plowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting.
Take a look at a few Bible passages that describe the importance of recognizing and working “in season:”
Proverbs 20:4 (NLT) Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest.
Galatians 6:9 (NLT) So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
2 Timothy 2:6, 7 (MSG) It’s the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it all plain.
Every good farmer knows that plowing, planting and cultivating come before harvesting. You can’t change the order and be successful. To be a great farmer, you first need to be able to recognize these seasons. You must understand when the right work needs to be done. If an aspiring farmer doesn’t know the difference between plowing and harvesting season, they’re doomed before they even begin. Farming 101 is “Know your seasons!”
After a budding farmer passes the “know the seasons” test, their next step is to learn how to do the right things in the right ways at the right times. They must understand what tools, efforts, priorities, and activities are required to be productive in the proper season. If you want a successful crop you don’t use a combine machine when you need a plow and you don’t use a plow when you need a combine machine!
Finally, all this knowledge is useless unless the farmer rolls up his or her sleeves and actually does the right work at the right time in the right way. Dreaming, writing or talking about a having a beautiful farm with incredible harvests doesn’t a successful farm make! Only wise, hard work does!
When all these are in place, farmers are in the place of cooperating with God’s seasons. They are synchronized for success!
How well do you recognize life seasons? Do you know when you need to be plowing, planting, cultivating or harvesting? Have you learned the skills and resources you need for success in each season? Are you cooperating with God’s seasons? Are you “synchronized for success?”
Pastor Dale
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