Momspirational Life

Unlearning is a word that we rarely practice in our lives, yet we must embrace it when it is what God requires of us for us to bear godly fruit. To unlearn means we have to surrender our old habits or flesh-based burdens to learn a new habit or lifestyle that may be out of our norm. It can be uncomfortable, messy, and discouraging, yet it bears fruit when one unlearns with God’s loving guidance. Unlearning takes time, which requires discerning patience as God’s timing is not according to our schedules. If we take a look within, we are a mess in need of Someone to take our hand to show and tell us where we need to heal. However, just as children, we become resistant to what God wants us to work on first because it was not what we would have chosen first to heal.

God’s Timing

Maybe we were expecting God to take our insecurity in His Hands, but God walked us through a season of resentment. Maybe we were expecting God to take our unforgiveness in His Hands, but God walked us through a season of surrendering our pride. As we are merely human and finite, we cannot fathom the ways of how God chooses to shape our stories of becoming like Jesus. Often, what God chooses in His timing of working on within us is what we unknowingly needed the most as we cannot see the bigger, divine intervention we have yet to face.

Lately, God has been putting Ecclesiastes in my heart. This book has “popped up” in my heart through guidance from the Holy Spirit during my seasons this past year. More specifically, it was Ecclesiastes 3:11, but to understand that verse better, I had to understand the whole chapter in its context. Time for God is different than time for us, yet there is a time for each and every specific action we face. For each season is an instilled portion of our testimony from God and our preparation into eternity.

"Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11, NLT

Appointed Time

In verses 1-8, it is a beautiful comparison of a beginning and an end for different seasons. Verse one begins as, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” To better understand Scriptural context, the word season, in Hebrew is “zeman,” which translates into- appointed time. If one looks at the trees through the fall, winter, spring, and summer seasons, the tree itself remains while the leaves change colors and drop to the ground. The roots of that tree grow deeper into the ground, allowing the tree to grow and prepare for a new season.

Moving forward to verse nine, “What do people really get for their hard work?” That question within that verse rings true to what everyone of us asks of ourselves and others. What do we have to show for our struggles and endurance? One may ask, “Why must they endure the burdens when they exhibit strong faith in the Lord? The burdens we bear do not mean we suffer for nothing because the foundation of our faith is in Jesus, and we grow from what became sown into our lives.

Appointed Growth

What does appointed growth look like? There is a statement that says a person is either entering a new season, enduring a season, or exiting a season. As Christians, we can often easily sense what part of a season we are enduring. Yet, we do not recognize it right away when we are entering a season because we often become blindsided by the unexpected.

Typically, we are blindsided because our enemy is aiming to distract and deter us from our faith in the Lord. He cannot read our minds, yet he can implant thoughts of fear, anger, or doubt into our minds when we are caught of-guard. His goal is to create overwhelm in our lives to make us spiritually distracted and tired.

The enemy tries to discourage us by:

• Catching us in a weak moment- like sinning
• Catching us when we are spiritually tired

I became closer to my dad when my mom passed away four years ago; my dad and I were already close, but losing a parent changes you. Around this time last year, I was hit with news that my dad was rushed to the hospital and doctors were unsure if he would survive. What not a lot of people know is during that season with my dad, I was enduring another season (a story for another time), and I was spiritually tired and traumatized as seeing my dad in his most vulnerable state resurfaced the memories of when my mom was hospitalized and passed away. I was on autopilot it seemed as I was trying to stay in the Word and stay encouraged, but it was a challenge when I was spiritually tired.

Little did I know what God was using this circumstance for the better as I was able to see a change in my dad’s personal faith. For me and my family to witness with him going from uncertainty to a miracle by a doctor’s definition was a humbling experience. That burden that may have felt like an enemy attack was also a divine burden for a grander purpose.

Divine Burden

Verse ten says, “I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.” Burden in Hebrew is “inyan,” which means, according to the NAS Exhaustive Concordance, effort, investment, or task.” Investment….not a word we would necessarily equate to burdens in our lives, yet it holds so much truth behind the meaning. Referring back to verse eleven of how we cannot see the whole picture of God’s work brings that Scripture into further context. Our seasons in our journey are divine burdens (investments) God placed upon us so that we are created into the very being He desired for us.

What I thought was me entering a season of promotion into God’s will was indeed a season of promotion, but it had extras- a season of surrendering my bitterness, anxiety, insecurity, complaining, resentment, control, and fear. Let me tell you, that was the hardest walk I have had to face in a long time, but it was most necessary for me to ensure I continued my walk in God’s Will.

Through surrendering bitterness, I rediscovered contentment in my circumstances. Through surrendering anxiety, as this is probably still the biggest struggle, I found peace in circumstances I walk through, whether it is my family, my marriage, my friendships, or my faith. Through surrendering insecurity, I felt peace with how God created and perceives me- a beautiful woman of His. Through surrendering complaining, another tough struggle, I realized my words should be a blessing upon myself rather than bringing a curse. Through surrendering fear, I learned to look up through my storms.

Divine Investment

That last one, surrendering fear, is probably a compilation of all the others I surrendered (and what most of us surrender as well). Normally, we see the why after the season, but do we truly know why? For we are still enduring our journey on Earth, and there is no telling what God truly planned for us in our seasons for our eternity with Him. We are to remain rooted in Him as our seasons pass by to create room for growth. We must unlearn the dread of enduring the hard seasons and realize the importance of growing through them.

What Does Unlearning Look Like?

1. Recognize whatever hardship faced, God does not let that go for nothing
   • What the enemy causes for bad, God can intend for good. For example, a season of financial struggle can allow a family to look up and become humbled in their finances through vulnerable faith.
2. Looking to Scripture
   • Because we have the Holy Spirit within us, we can trust that He will guide us to Scripture that will provide us reassurance and comfort to seeing how we are to focus on Jesus rather than what we are enduring.
3. Thanking God for His Divine Investment
   • Rather than seeing our burdens as burdens, we can thank God, as difficult it can be, for his Divine Investment in each season as He truly is shaping us to bear the fruit in our lives, if we allow Him to do so.

Through the Season Brings Fruit

We must stop and remember the fruits of the Holy Spirit because He lives within us. When we became Christians, that meant we allowed the Holy Spirit to prune our hearts to allow for godly fruit to grow for God’s Kingdom. When God invested in our lives (through burdens), that meant that investment must go through growth to bring forth value.

To cast our burdens to Him means we recognize the divine investment He envisioned in our lives to create us into a beautiful story for others and eternity.