Spiritual Seasons: When We Misread God’s Heart

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When I first started writing about spiritual seasons, my goal was pretty simple. I wanted to better understand the different seasons we walk through with God, so we could recognize what He might be doing in them.

Was He pruning something? Refining something in us? Were we walking through a wilderness, planting something new, or beginning to see a harvest?

And honestly, recognizing the season helped. The more I studied, the more I began to see what God might be doing in my own life.

I also realized these seasons aren’t as neat and linear as I first imagined. Over a lifetime of following Jesus, we’ll likely find ourselves in all of them. Sometimes, somehow, several at once.

That’s why I’d actually encourage you to read through the whole Spiritual Seasons series. Not so you can perfectly label every circumstance in your life, but so you can begin recognizing what God may be doing when you find yourself there.

Because that’s what studying them did for me. It helped me recognize His heart in seasons I had been completely misreading.

“Are We Suffering Enough?”

A few years ago, my husband and I were in a season where so many prayers were being answered. God was providing. Doors were opening. There was so much to be grateful for.

And yet, something felt off.

I remember looking at my husband one night and asking, “Are we suffering enough?”

I can still picture him raising his eyebrows at me before reminding me of the very real problems we did, in fact, have.

And he wasn’t wrong.

Our life wasn’t perfect. Looking back, I think I was experiencing some of that peace Scripture talks about, the kind that doesn’t always make sense according to your circumstances.

But I had also been reading about what following Jesus cost the apostles. People had lost their lives sharing the same gospel that sometimes made me uncomfortable just to bring up in conversation.

Compared to that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t “paying” enough. Like maybe eventually God would have to knock me down a little.

I didn’t understand what I was feeling until I started studying spiritual seasons.

That’s when I realized we were in a harvest season.

God hadn’t been too good to us and now needed to balance the scales. I was beginning to understand that blessing carried responsibility too. What God gives us isn’t always meant to stop with us.

Maybe what I was missing wasn’t suffering, but the surrender to be used in the overflow.

Once I understood we were in a harvest season, that weight started to make more sense. I didn't need to wonder when God was going to knock me down. I needed to start asking what He wanted me to do with everything He had given us.

God, how do You want me to steward what You’ve entrusted to me?

His Heart in Every Season

Then I started noticing this in other seasons too.

After I wrote about the wilderness, a reader told me that God’s silence had made her wonder if He was mad at her.

I’ve heard my own mom say something similar.

And I understand why our minds go there. When another person stops talking to us, we know what the cold shoulder feels like. So when God feels quiet, we start filling in the silence.

Did I do something wrong? Is He upset with me?

Israel woke each morning in the wilderness to manna. It was a place where they learned to depend on God for what they needed that day.

And I wonder how much manna we can miss because we’re busy interpreting the wilderness as rejection.

Then there was a friend who was seeking God, spending time with Him and trying to be obedient, but everything seemed to carry tension.

I’m doing all the “right” things. Why does everything feel so hard?

Her experience made me think about John 15. Jesus says the Father prunes the branch that is already bearing fruit so it can bear more.

The tension itself couldn’t tell her what God thought about her.

But I also don’t want to use “spiritual seasons” to explain away everything uncomfortable in our lives.

Sometimes God really is showing us something that needs to change. There are times we need to let Him search our hearts, repent when He convicts us, and allow Him to correct us.

Even then, we can misunderstand His heart.

Hebrews 12 tells us that God disciplines those He loves.

I think about David after his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan confronted him, David repented, and God forgave him, but there were still very real consequences for what he had done.

Even God's discipline has to be understood through the heart of a Father who loves us.

Different Seasons. Same Father.

The more I’ve studied these seasons, the more I’ve realized how different they can look.

Harvest asks something different of us than wilderness. Pruning doesn’t feel like planting. Refining has its own purpose. Renewal has its own beauty.

And sometimes several of them overlap.

But through all of them, the Father hasn’t changed.

Harvest taught me that His blessing wasn’t something I needed to be suspicious of. It was something I could gratefully receive and faithfully steward.

Wilderness reminded me that silence doesn’t mean I’ve been abandoned.

Pruning showed me that tension isn’t always evidence that something has gone wrong.

And refining reminds me that the fire has a purpose. God is purifying us, bringing things to the surface that need to go and making us more like Jesus.

Different seasons. Same Father.

These seasons aren’t some obstacle course God created while He watches from the sidelines. They’re simply part of life, and He is a caring Father walking with us through it.

So read about the seasons. Learn to recognize them. Ask God what He may be doing in each one.

But whatever season you find yourself in, don’t forget to look at His heart.

Ask:

What am I believing about God here, and is it true?

Then take it back to His Word. Let what He has revealed about Himself speak louder than whatever your circumstances seem to be saying.

And most of all, keep drawing near to Jesus.

Because the point was never simply to become good at identifying our seasons. It’s to know Him in them.

Whatever this season holds for you, I hope you find yourself knowing Jesus more deeply through it.

The season will change.

But His character won’t.

And what a gift that through every season, we get to know Him more.