“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

“Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Psalm 13, The Holy Bible, English Standard Version

Spring, summer, fall, and winter…the God-ordained, established, and unchanging seasons of time. Although the exact characteristics of each season may vary significantly depending on where you live, most places on earth experience some kind of climate change as the seasons shift. Where I grew up, spring was a long-awaited season of green, newness, and life. This quickly transitioned into summer, which was characterized by warmth, sunshine, growth, and the occasional thunderstorm. Eventually the days began to grow shorter, with a distinct crispness and chill creeping into the air, reminding me that fall, a season of maturity, harvest, and preparation, had come. And finally, winter would arrive in all its snowy whiteness, bringing the dreaded cold and the experience of death or hibernation for much of the plant and animal life in the area.

I see in the seasons of the earth an intentionally created reflection of the seasons of life that we all walk through. As on the earth, in life there are exciting seasons of birth and newness, there are challenging times of growth and maturing, there are seasons of great fullness and joy and of seeing dreams fulfilled, and there are the unavoidable times of death and mourning. And try as you might, these seasons cannot be stopped or altered; you cannot shorten, lengthen, or avoid your seasons of life any more than you can change the seasons of the earth. They just are. Unavoidable, predictable, a rhythm of one flowing into the next.

I have always loved reading and sitting before the Lord in meditation of the Psalms in the Bible. And when I go through different seasons of life, whether joyful or challenging, I find myself especially drawn to these prayers and songs. One of the things I love about the Psalms is the poetic depiction of practically every emotion known to mankind. This makes them so emotionally relatable to all seasons of life. I love how the psalmist is so raw and honest before the Lord, pouring his heart out before Him, genuinely, honestly, and deeply. I love the beauty of the worship and praise that he pours forth to the God who is so worthy of it all. And I love how even though many of the prayers begin in despair, they end in hope, with the psalmist’s eyes back on the One who is the answer to every question, the fulfiller of His every promise, and the One who promises to never leave or forsake His children, no matter how they feel or what they experience in life.

Sometimes when I sit with the Lord, I write my prayers from a raw and honest heart, out of whatever season I am currently experiencing. And I have discovered that I write even deeper during my more challenging seasons of life. I am learning to take advantage of the hard times by pouring out my heart before the Lord, and connecting with Him in deeper ways that I would not experience if all of life was easy. There is just something so beautiful about being honest before the Lord and pouring out our hearts before Him, whether in spoken or written form, that draws us closer to Him in relationship. He knows everything that is in our hearts anyway, so why not just be honest, and let Him heal and speak to the deep places that need Him?

My next few blog posts will be some of the prayers that I have written during different seasons of my life over the years. Perhaps they will encourage you to pour out your own heart before the Lord, no matter what season you are currently experiencing. He is worthy of our complete honesty and trust. Be brave enough to open your mouth and speak from your heart; He wants to hear it. And because honesty and trust are key components of what causes relationships to grow, be ready to grow deeper in your relationship with Him. No matter how much you desire to know Him, He longs even more to know you and that you would know Him in return.