Would you pray with me? Father, we’re thankful this morning. Thankful to be in your house. Thankful that you’re here in our midst, Lord, gathered with us. We thank you that we have you. We thank you that we have one another. Lord, we thank you that you’ve given us each enough.
You’ve blessed us with riches in Christ, and you’ve given us gifts and talents to support one another, to bear one another up, and to lead one another on. Lord, I thank you for the friendship in this room. I thank you for the faithfulness in this room. Thank you for the giving in this room. Lord, I just thank you for the love in this room that these people have for me, for one another, for you, Lord. It’s encouraging. Thank you for the grace that is that. Lord, we just thank you that we can call upon your name, and that you hear us. Because of Jesus, Lord, we can come into your presence, and we can come into your presence boldly. We can make supplications and intercessions, or we can make requests. We can just worship you rightly, Lord, because of Jesus. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your sacrifice on the cross. We thank you for your blood that cleanses us of all sin. We thank you for sending us the Spirit. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us, and guiding us, and correcting us. We thank you for your promises that are yes and amen. We thank you for the Holy Spirit, and the hope that we have, Lord, just to keep marching. And one day we’ll finish the race, and we’ll be with you forever. I ask that you would just be with me now. Help me to speak clearly, Lord. I pray that your truth would be proclaimed. I pray that you would just preach to my own heart. I pray that you would encourage us all, teach us all, build us up this morning, Lord. We just love you, and we’re here to worship you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We’re going to be in Matthew 9, 14-17.
Pastor Chad and Jess are on like a little last hoorah before the third one comes along. Since he’s not here, I did my best to make him present with you. I wore my sweater vest, you know, just to kind of channel my inner Chad. That’s not really why I did that, but it hit me when I got here, and I was like, well, that works, you know.
As Rebecca said, Dave, fell yesterday and is in a lot of pain, so we’re praying for him and Alicia as well. They had to go to the emergency room last night. She thought she was having some contractions and some other things, so we’re praying for them.
But Matthew 9, 14-17, let’s go ahead and read the word.
It says, Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine spilled, and the skins are destroyed. But, new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. I hear it all the time, and I see memes and whatnot on Facebook talking about how confusing it is to live in North Alabama in the winter. You never know what to wear or what the weather is going to be like. I was at Lowe’s on Thursday, I think it was, and I see this guy in shorts and flip-flops, and it’s February 5th or 6th. I’m wearing a short-sleeved shirt myself, and then Friday morning, I’m looking out the window of my office, drinking my coffee, and it’s snowing. I’m like, man, I don’t know where I’m at, or what to do, you know? And I think it was either Thursday or Friday, I heard somebody say something, and I thought it was funny. They were like, the weatherman is the only person who can be wrong 90% of the time at his job and still get a paycheck, right? So,
it’s funny.
When we were on the beach, she was Thursday. It was about 36 degrees. Oh, that’s cold for beach weather.
It’s still the beach, though, so I think it could work for me. I love the beach.
But, yeah, we’ve got to cut the weatherman some slack, right? Because I imagine it’s pretty tough sledding, no pun intended,
to know a little, a little bit about something
and have no ultimate control over it and get those predictions right. You just basically convey the information as you get it, right? So, said it was going to snow, it didn’t. Sorry, guys. School is canceled. Enjoy the day off. Or, hey, it’s going to be sunny weather. Go have a picnic, and it pours on you. Like, you know, what are you going to do? Show some grace, I suppose. But, you know, we can wake up, and my wife asks, what’s the weather like today? I’m like, I don’t know. Go step outside, you know, light jacket, or put your cheek up to the window, you know, it’s kind of chilly out there. So, you know, you can figure it out yourself, but, I know we didn’t come this morning to decide whether today warrants a cotton button-up or a sweater. So, when it comes to navigating the chief issues in life, we should look to the one that not only created those seasons, but he orchestrates and directs them. Every passing cloud in the sky, every cool, sweet-smelling breeze that blows over flowers in the spring, every summer day that bleeds on into fall, and those nice, cool fall days that just smell, there’s something about them. They eventually turn into cold, bitter winter, you know? And, they’re all driven by God. When you’re on the beach, and you feel those rays of sun hitting your face, getting in all your vitamins, and you can hear the waves breaking, not a single one of them comes up onto the sand and goes back into the sea without God hovering over it. Nothing, nothing, including the weather, is outside of God’s control. And, I really want us to grasp onto that. So, every droplet of water that hits your leaky roof, we were trying to sell our house, I went up to the attic the other day, and it’s like, oh, what do you know? A drip, you know? Every water droplet is only falling as God releases it from His hand. Right? So, just as God commands the natural world around us to behave as He wishes it to, whether or otherwise, so He commands those spiritual seasons that do usually involve and affect daily happenings in our lives. They affect what we wear, where we go, what we do, how we feel. But, chiefly, they have to do with, and they have an effect on, as well as the outcome of the state of our souls. They are ingredients in God’s sanctification process.
They will determine in the present.
They command a certain posture from us towards Jesus based on what’s going on. And, ultimately, they’re going to, in the long term,
determine our likeness to Him. It’s a refining fire, if you will. They will shape and mold us. So, get this. Seasons change. So, look to the one who directs them and dress accordingly. And, as we unpack this little passage, the overarching trajectory of it, it’s going to allow us to see two states of the Christian life and how we, as followers, need to know whether we need to be feasting or fasting, how to do each one appropriately, as well as how to consider our brothers and sisters in their own circumstances and seasons in life. So, in the passage, the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all have this account coming directly after Jesus calling Levi and going to Levi’s house, having, a supper, a feast with Him, tax collectors and sinners there, and being challenged. And so, I think it’s safe to say that this event is probably one and the same. If not, it’s immediately after. It’s very closely connected to, at the very least. So, I have no problem believing that Jesus is still reclining at the table when it says that John’s disciples… So, Matthew says that John’s disciples came. I believe it’s Mark says that John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples came. And then Luke says, the Pharisees, either way, they came to question Jesus, right? And I believe Jesus is still sitting at the table reclining, having the meal.
And,
in Mark’s account, when it says the Pharisees were fasting, it’s I, me, it’s to be. So, it’s a present. It’s a present thing. It’s now. So, they were still, they were still fasting. And so, at that time, they came to Jesus. And it’s not like they came to Him and they had been contemplating, you know, thoughtfully, why Jesus is doing what He’s doing. You know, and they’re just really trying to learn, you know, what He’s teaching His disciples. They came to challenge Him on His teaching. You know, as if they were going to say, hey, what’s the deal here? Why aren’t y’all fasting like us? You know? And so, Jesus’ response, it leads us into learning about that first season that we’re going to talk about. We have feasting.
And Jesus, in the parable, He refers to His own disciples as wedding guests. And Himself being the bridegroom.
That’s the ESV. It says wedding guests. The NASB, it has that as attendance of the bridegroom. And the King James says children of the bride chamber. I like that one. And just reading a little bit about weddings then and children of the bride chamber. It’s a more intimate space during the wedding celebration and ceremony. It allows me to come into a private room with honored guests, if you will, with Jesus. And so, you’re more than just an attendee, right? But, either way, whether you take that to be a mere attendant, that’s certainly an undeserved honor given that King Jesus is the bridegroom, right? So, just to say that. Just to be there that’s a blessing, right? Or to be a more honorary guest who rejoices at the nearness of the bridegroom’s voice as John the Baptist said. The wedding is a joyful time. I remember our wedding day and it was a time of joy. It was a time of celebration. It was a time to eat. It was a time to drink. It was a time to have a good time. We danced and we cut up and we enjoyed the day and we celebrated. We made it memorable.
But those who weren’t attentive to Jesus and who weren’t sitting at His feet to hear His teaching, sort of like Martha, they were busy doing whatever they think they had to do instead of being like Mary and listening to Him. They were unaware of what season it actually was because they were not listening. And so, they were not privy to the blessing, the fruit that was the feast, what it offered them. A time of rest, a time of relaxation, enjoyment, fun. It was a joyful time. And this wedding is simply a mere appetizer for the coming wedding feast, the eternal one that is to be had with the whole of Christ’s followers. At this wonderful celebration and climax, we’re not mere guests. It’s at a royal wedding, even. No, we are the blood-bought bride of Christ.
Have you, like Matthew, obeyed the call of Christ to join Him? Have you experienced the kindness of Jesus in graciously calling not only unlikely, but unfit and impossible followers, as Pastor Chad would say, and transforming you into a worthy son or daughter? Have you been washed in the blood of Christ? Have you been baptized in His Spirit? Have you been redeemed of all your wretched works by the perfect work of Christ on the cross? Have you been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone? Hear His call today, for He’s inviting you to come and feast with Him.
For those of us who have tasted, who have seen, who have sat at the table with Jesus, take a moment and do it often to remember and to savor His generosity. Just savor what a season it is to be able to sit and recline and enjoy the presence of Jesus. That’s a grace of God that He gives those times to us.
Think of His patience with you, His goodness and His favor. Those who are attending the bridegroom are not given a courtesy invite. They’re not filling seats. No, they’re called by name. Levi, follow me. Lazarus, come out. Peter, Andrew, drop your nets and come and follow me. Hey, Chase, come. Hannah, come. It’s a personal invite. It’s not a no-name thing.
Each and every one of those names is written down in the Lamb’s own book. And they’ll receive everlasting life. It’s the most personal of invitations. Jesus calls His own. Jesus saves His own. And Jesus keeps His own. He loves His own. And Jesus cares for His own. Be joyful. Be glad. Rejoice and be free in the freedom that Christ has given you.
It’s a time of feasting. Don’t be like the disciples of John. Notice the difference in the possession of the disciples. Luke 5 says, the disciples of John, as well as the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours. So those disciples themselves say, but yours. They separate themselves and they dispossess themselves from Jesus. Hey, we’re disciples of John. We’re disciples of the Pharisees, but you’re disciples. So they exclude themselves from that feast.
The Pharisees doing that, it doesn’t surprise me much. But the disciples of John, it does. Because it’s not as if they hadn’t heard of who Jesus was.
John knew well who Jesus was. John was the forerunner. He proclaimed and confessed Jesus as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. As the bridegroom, who he stood and looked on with joy. One who he was unworthy to bend over and untie his sandals. John knew. In John’s account of the gospel in chapter 1, it tells us that John was proclaiming Christ. And two of his own disciples heard him and left and went and followed Jesus. So John was obviously preaching Christ.
Whoever these followers were that were John’s disciples, they weren’t feasting because they were ensnared to a religious rigidness. That Jesus did not cast on them.
Be careful of what you bind yourself to.
Be careful not to bind yourself to something that God has not bound you to.
Be careful not to let anyone else bind you something to what God has not bound you to.
There is freedom in Christ.
And Jesus’ response. It’s a really gracious response. Actually, he doesn’t cut down John’s disciples. He doesn’t deal with them harshly as he does oftentimes with the Pharisees. He simply answers them in a matter-of-fact sort of way. And really, I think it’s gracious. But at the same time, as he gives an explanation of why his disciples are feasting and not fasting, he’s giving a defense of them. He’s defending his own disciples. And that’s powerful for me. Don’t miss that. Jesus is a defender of his disciples, of his followers. And if we will live our lives learning and following Jesus together, we can rest assured that whenever the powers or principalities and foes and evildoers and those who would tear us down for partaking in freedoms that are ours from God or just the enjoyment that we have of God’s grace in our lives, Jesus will defend us. We don’t need any other defense. And whether it be judged in this life now or in the one to come, you can rest assured that Jesus, like a mighty lion, will defend you and devour all who come against you. Just ask sin and death.
Just meditate on God’s Word and let it govern your days. Let it govern your seasons. Let it govern your ceremonies. Let it govern what you do, what you abstain from. Let it govern what you partake in. Be informed by God. Be careful who you follow. That made all the difference here. These men were following John, so they were doing what John did or what John thought. These other men were Pharisees and following the Pharisees, so they did what the Pharisees said was important. And these others who were sitting and enjoying themselves were following Jesus. So just know who it is that you’re following.
Jesus isn’t against fasting. He doesn’t condemn the disciples of John for questioning about their fasting as if fasting was unnecessary or unfruitful. It’s neither of those. Jesus actually says that there will come a time when He goes away and then they will fast. Because seasons change, right? And then it would certainly be an appropriate time to fast. So with Jesus we fast and for Jesus… I mean… With Jesus we feast, I’m sorry, and for Jesus we fast. Does that make sense? With Jesus, in His presence, we feast. It is a time to rejoice and be glad in His presence. And for Jesus, we desire it, we want it. Please come, be near me, we fast.
I preached a few months ago in Matthew 6. And it had a great deal to do with fasting, so I’m not going to go into all of that again. But just… I’m going to sort of rehash it. The fasting and the prayer being referred to by John’s disciples and answered by Jesus, it wasn’t one of these few times such as the Day of Atonement or these other celebrations that God had prescribed fasting. No, this had become something way outside of that. It was a man-made religion, to put it plainly. And the Pharisees were known… They were known to be pretty hardcore with their fasting. Luke 18, 12 says he fasts twice a week.
He’s beating the body to gain some favor with God, as if that were even possible. It’s called asceticism.
And they would, as a priest on Matthew 6, they would make their faces gloomy, roll out of bed, not comb their hair, brush their teeth, and make themselves look all tired and worn down. And worn out. Just to show the world around them just how devoted they were. And what were they devoted to? Themselves. Right? That’s what they were devoted to. And Jesus says they have their reward. They have it in full. And it’s not in heaven. But there is a godly fast, and there is a godly season of prayer. Right? It’s a season that yearns for Jesus. If I could… Condense the goal of fasting and prayer, it would be to deny myself of all secondary needs even, secondary pleasures, just to gain Christ. Just to gain Christ personally, to gain His wisdom, to gain His power, His love, His approval. It’s a yearning for Christ.
And a season… A season… A season of prayer. Like, you know, Jesus isn’t saying, you know, don’t pray now until, you know, I go away. Then you can pray. No, this is a specific season of prayer. It’s a really hardcore time of prayer. Right? It’s a certain occasion.
It’s unlike any other. And it has a certain quality of desperation to it. A fervor about it. Jesus says, particularly, right now they feast. It’s not appropriate for them to mourn at the wedding, right? So, it’s a… It’s mourning. It’s a sad time. It’s a desperate time, this prayer and fasting that He’s talking about.
Just to give an example of fasting in the New Testament, this was mainly for the disciples to gain wisdom from God on what to do. And it says in Acts 13, 2 and 3, it says,
So, again, Jesus is not opposing fasting to life in the New Covenant, right? It’s very much a part of life in the New Covenant. It’s… It’s necessary at times. Jesus is making the point that there are seasons for these things. There is an appropriate time for each of them. And as followers of Jesus, there will come a time, and maybe it is now for you to fast and to pray. It may be that you’re desperate for the nearness of God. You’ve been walking through some sort of dry season. You come to a point of desperation. Or you just cry out for God to be near. Just have this wretched feeling about yourself. You can’t find joy in anything. You feel like Jesus is a million miles away.
Just… It may be that, like these disciples in Acts, that you’re looking for God’s wisdom on something. It may just be that God is looking for you. God has given you a particular season of mourning. Maybe you lost a loved one. Or maybe you lost your job. Or maybe you’re going through an accuser. Or whatever it might be. Whatever it is.
God has placed something in your life. And it may not make a whole lot of sense now. Because it’s hard to see. We can’t know the mind of God ultimately. But sometimes it’s hard to see that. Because all you can think about, is the pain, or the sorrow, or the discomfort, or whatever it is that’s negatively affecting your day-to-day life, your relationships. I’m a person, I get eaten up with anxiety a lot. My wife is always like, What’s going on? I can’t explain it.
Sometimes I don’t think that God is making me anxious per se, but it’s something that I just have to trust Him with and fight through. And that’s a time of fascination. It’s a time of fasting for me. It’s a time of prayer for me. To be delivered from that. You know, I don’t want to be bound by that. I want You.
I thought about Psalm 102.
It says this, Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry come to You. Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline Your ear to me. Answer me speedily in the day when I call. For my days pass away, like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered. I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I’m like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I’m like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me, and those who deride me use my name for a curse. I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink.
Because of Your indignation and anger, for You have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow, and I wither away like grass.
And then He says this, in the midst of His mourning, in the midst of His crying out for God, He says, But You, O Lord, are enthroned forever. You are remembered throughout, all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion. It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come.
Have you been in a season of mourning? Then take heart, because the same Jesus that invites you to come and feast with Him is the same Jesus in your time of mourning, in your time of fasting. He never changes. The Holy Spirit, for the believer, dwells in you.
Jesus residing in you. He is the Comforter. He is God in you. We fast longing for Jesus to come finally and completely restore all things. We fast and mourn when we lose loved ones. We fast in times of uncertainty and trial. We fast in times that we have given ground to the desires of our flesh and are overcome with sin. We fast when we’re eaten up with anxiety like me. Give it to the Lord. We know that spring runs into summer. Summer fades into fall. And then fall turns into cold, bitter winter. But for the believer, you can rest on the hope that spring is coming again. New life is on its way. I had never read the Chronicles of Narnia. I still haven’t read them all, but I read book two with Isabella a few weeks ago. And I loved it. It was great. And so I don’t want to spoil anything, but this book’s so old, like if you haven’t seen the movie or read it by now, I’m sorry. So I will spoil it because it’s a good illustration. But in the book, when they go into Narnia, it’s this winter, not wonderland, but it’s a world gripped by winter and cold. And the witch has a spell on it, right? And she’s keeping it there. And then as the book goes on, it progresses. It progresses. And you start to see the hero that’s coming into the story. And his name’s Aslan. And he very much so represents Christ. And even when Aslan just starts to come near, but before he’s there, he’s just on his way, there’s a snow melt off, right? Flowers start popping up. And then ultimately, he comes and conquers the evil that is there and he restores Narnia. And it’s like springtime again. And it’s, it’s just a wonderful illustration. And it was encouraging to me to read that with Isabella because that’s what Jesus is doing and will finally do. He will completely do away with the curse of sin and death. He has defeated it already. And one day he’s coming back to restore all things and we can live with him and feast with him forever, never to have another season of mourning again. So have hope in that. On your hardest days, on your dark days, cloud filled days, and you just can’t get out from under that, that blanket that just weighs on you. Just keep your eyes fixed on Jesus because if you finish the race well, you will be with him forever, never to taste bitter sorrow again. You will enjoy him, be with him.
Just trust Jesus.
Remember that seasons don’t change on their own accord, but they follow every command of their maker. And sometimes for me, that’s one of the hardest truths to not believe because I believe it, but to accept it. When I know that God has allowed something hard to enter in my life, I’m like, why? Why are you doing this to me? Why? But I just have to trust at the end of the day that Jesus is good and his will and his way are perfect.
And he has a very specific reason for it. Suffering is not meaningless. Seasons of mourning are not, just because feasting isn’t fun anymore. It’s for a particular purpose. You have to trust that Jesus loves you. You’re not a no-name person sitting at the wedding. You’re a specific person invited to feast with him. And so when he leaves for a season and you find yourself fasting and praying, just know that he’s just as close as he ever was. You just have to trust him in that.
And Jesus follows that illustration of being the bridegroom and the attendance of the bridegroom at the wedding. They can’t mourn there. That’s not appropriate. And then gives some insight into what’s to come. Maybe he was specifically talking about him going to the cross,
spending three nights in the tomb and raising on the third day and being ascended up into heaven and there was going to be a short season. Before he ascended to the Spirit. Maybe specifically that is what it is, but there are also just times when Jesus doesn’t seem as near and it is a time of mourning for us. But he follows that up with two more examples. And I read a bunch of different commentaries on these. And some commentaries say that these verses are non-related to the previous illustration that he gave. Not completely disconnected, but, but he was kind of talking about something else. I think I disagree with that. I think it’s just as or even more personal than the previous illustration that he gave. Some commentaries, here, let me go into it. So he compares what he had previously said to these two stories. He says that you don’t put an unshrunk patch on an old garment because the unshrunk patch it’s not ready. It hasn’t undergone the change that it needs to. And so when you sew it on the garment, it’s going to shrink, pull away from the old garment, tear it, and ruin it. And then he, I think he’s saying the same exact thing, but he uses a different illustration. He says you don’t put new wine into an old wineskin. A new wine, as it ferments and everything, it’s going to build up pressure. It’s going to release gases and everything. And these old wineskins can’t hold up to that. And it’s going to burst them. And you’re going to, you’re going to ruin both. I just think this is just a simple illustration and a very personal one of how Jesus knows exactly what you need and what you can handle in your life. Some commentators say that this is, he sort of alludes to, you know, the fasting, the way of the Pharisees and all that. You don’t put the new gospel doctrine into that old thing. I think I disagree with that. You can probably find that somewhere in there, but I just think it’s simple what Jesus is saying. I know what my brittle, not old in age, but frail disciples can hold. They can’t take something that they’re not ready for. The old wineskin can’t receive new wine. It’s going to tear them apart and I’m going to ruin both of them. So it’s simply, simply personal. Jesus knows you as his disciple. Jesus cares for you as his disciple and he’s not going to give you something like a two day a week fast or any other religious exercise that you’re not ready to handle because you’re just going to fall away. You’re going to get burnt out. You’re going to shag out and go follow somebody else. And there’s a saying that, you know, Jesus won’t give you more than you can handle. That’s not my favorite saying, but I think in, in some way, this sort of gives credence to that. And it’s not that Jesus won’t give you more than you can handle, but Jesus is going to give you the right thing at the right time. I think is a better way to say it, right? So as you grow in your discipleship, as you grow in your faith, as you grow in your walk with the Lord, Jesus is probably going to give you harder things to grow you even more when you can handle it, right? Like the word talks about, you know, you, you as a babe in Christ, you drink milk. And then at some point, you need to be ready to eat meat, but I can’t feed my seven-month-old daughter a piece of steak as much as I like it. I can handle it. I can chew it. I have teeth. I have grown enough to accept those things. She can’t. She still needs a bottle. She gets some num-nums here and there, some pureed sweet potatoes. Now, I might take a bite, you know, of her stuff, so I can handle that too, you know, but, but there, there is an appropriate time for everything. There is an appropriate season. And, and, and Jesus knows what those times are for you, specifically. One thing I was thinking about this week as I was thinking about this passage is when we go out to Big Spring Park for evangelism, I think it would be unwise for us to sit up here and beat on a drum and say how every one of you needs to be out there proclaiming the gospel, right, with your own mouth. You as a Christian may not be ready for that. And it’s up to us to have, have the wisdom and the patience and the humility to walk with you through that, right? So if you come and, and just walk with us there, that’s a win. Because I, I take my daughter to the grocery store. She’s not old enough to go shopping by herself, but I can, she can tag along, right? In the same way, some of us in this room aren’t necessarily ready for some things in the Christian life. And that’s a win. And that’s okay. That’s okay. Don’t let someone burden you with something that God is not burdening you with. Don’t let somebody put something on you that you’re not ready for. And just know and believe and trust with all of your heart that Jesus will never do that to you. Jesus loves you tenderly, faithfully, perfectly, always.
And so this, this illustration about the wineskins is this, it’s been encouraging to me just because, like I mentioned earlier, I’ve just been in this season of anxiety and whatnot and what if this and what if that and this is too much to bear and all this and that. But Jesus knows me and Jesus loves me and Jesus is going to lead me just as He sees fit. And I just need to trust Him. I just need to trust Him.
And it also says that new, wine is put into new wineskins. And so, as you grow in your walk with Christ, as you become transformed into that new wineskin,
be ready for new wine to be put into you. Because at some point, it’s probably going to come. And there’s going to be some expansion. There’s going to be some stretching. There’s going to be some discomfort and pain even. But again, it’s exactly what Christ, sees fit for you. Because ultimately, everything that He’s doing is for your good and for His glory. It’s shaping you and transforming you into His own likeness. Sometimes it’s a season of feasting that accomplishes that, right? We all need some rest and just to be with Jesus. Sometimes it’s a season of fasting and mourning and prayer. It stretches us and it pushes us and it grows us.
So, just trust Jesus in every season of your life. Pray with me.
Lord Jesus, I pray that You would just
teach us, give us grace to trust You as our days
change and seasons change and things come along that are hard to hear, hard to accept, hard to handle,
and even when we have good seasons, Lord, that we wouldn’t
fall into just a state of luxury and we go too far on that side, but that we would just
be attentive to You and what You’re saying. I pray that You would just strengthen us as Your disciples. Grow us, Lord. We thank You that You defend us. We thank You that You care for us and You love us. Pray that You would just give us rest in You today, Lord. And You bless our last song and You just bless our afternoon, Lord. We love You in Jesus’ name. Amen.