Today, I was thinking back to 2020. It was right before the pandemic. I had just ordered the long-awaited new furniture for my house. Then COVID hit, and everything stopped. My furniture did not come as scheduled. I waited and waited. Finally, I became used to having an empty living room—which was not easy for me as I like everything in its place. My living room remained empty for months.
Since I could do nothing inside, I decided to concentrate on the outside. I set about removing the old landscaping, including all the old shrubbery, trees, and mulch. Finally, I had a clean slate to work with. I have to take time to look at an area for a few days before deciding what to put back. In addition, most stores were still closed, so I could not purchase new landscaping.
Now everything has been removed from my yard. My living room remained empty. When my front drapes were open, my yard and house looked empty.
One weekend, a family member called and said something that initially hurt my feelings. She said, “You must get your landscaping done; your house looks sad and abandoned.” Ouch! The last thing I wanted my home to look like was sad and abandoned. My home has always been a welcoming, peaceful place.
I could not get those words out of my mind. That day, I did not open my drapes because I did not want my home to look sad and abandoned. I was pondering those words when the Lord began to show me something. He showed me this is what transition often looks like.
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines transition as a passage from one place or state to another: change. I experienced this in my house and yard and have also often experienced it in my personal life.
Sometimes, a transition does not feel good and may not look good. Transition often precedes restoration. Before I can create new landscaping, I must remove the old. It is the same in our personal lives. Many times, before we can step into a new place in God, we must also remove the old or the no longer fruitful.
There are things in all our lives that do not produce fruit. They may have produced great fruit at one time. However, when we move into a new season, the things that worked before may no longer work. Therefore, they must be pulled up and moved out. We cannot look back and move forward at the same time. Faith is always moving…forward and upward.
Maybe you find yourself in a place of transition today. Perhaps you feel your life looks sad and empty. It could even be that some think God has abandoned you. Trust me. He has not.
I have been there. I have walked through a time of transition and testing to such a degree that people thought God had surely left me. He did not—not for a moment. I clung tightly to Him and His Word, and He brought forth new things in my life. I chose to trust Him in what appeared to be a season of barrenness. Praise the Lord! But before He brought forth the new, I had to be willing to pull up, remove and let go of the old. Only then did the new spring forth.
Isaiah 43:19 says, Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Friends, I encourage you to look past where you are right now. Look into the spirit and see the new coming forth.
The Bible says in Hebrews 12:2, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
We have all been through times when we had an opportunity to feel shame – do not! We have all traveled paths we wanted to throw in the towel and give up – again, do not! Like with Jesus, there is a deeper place beyond this time and season in God. Don’t allow how things look now to define you. The new is coming! The transition will end. The restoration will come. Trust God.
How things appear today is only the look of transition. Like Jesus, look beyond it and see the glory that is coming. It will come. It will not tarry. It will surely come.
Let this be your confession today and always. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, I will wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. Hab. 2:3
