There is a time to wait upon the Lord and be unmoved, and there is a time to move forward from one season to another where He is leading. It is in seeking the Lord that we discover the season we are currently in. I walked through a heavy season when I was compelled by the Lord to be still and stand in a place of refinement. “The words of the Lord are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” (Psalm 12:6). Of course I didn’t realize I was being refined at the time, I just knew it was hard. As the old adage goes: Hindsight is 2020.
I felt like I was being pressed to the enth degree – nothing was easy. It took discipline and release of my own desires/preferences to stand in it. I tried to get out and move to a different circumstance, but the Lord hemmed me in. But in time I came to the end of that refining season and the Lord was pressing on me to come to a new land, a new circumstance, a new place He would show me. Yet, I became comfortable in the discomfort.
When the Lord is ready to move us into a new season, He will let it be known. Often, it will not be a preference of our flesh, for even in being moved from one season to another – we must continue to surrender our seeming control and lay hold to what the Lord would have us do. Even if we think we are “comfortable here” there will come a time when the Lord would have us walk on with Him.
Psalm 66:10-12
“For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, yet You brought us out into a place of abundance.”