Blog by Sarah Hummel
Sometimes life is going great and you feel like you can coast. The wind is at your back. You’re walking in peace with ease. Other times you feel the turmoil of life in the pit of your stomach. Maybe because there is a sudden major hardship, but sometimes the pressures of life are just coming at you all at once.
Jeremiah 29:13 NIV “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
There is this moment in time I distinctly remember God teaching me to seek Him, no matter the season. I was 27 years old. Our son, David, was just born. Dave and I were living in Los Angeles, loving life, enjoying our son. We had great friends, we had a great church, we had just overcome quite a bit and our marriage was strong. I felt God whisper, “You are in a season of rest — things will sometimes be tough, things will sometimes be easier. Seek me and my will in every season and you will always find true rest, and true strength.”
I sensed so strongly that I was to enjoy the moment I was in and soak up God’s presence, His joy, and His peace. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but I heeded the words. I sowed into others, I read my Bible and was in church every single week. I even started a community group. I had no idea that my world was about to be flipped upside down. Within 2 months, my youngest brother was in a major motorcycle accident just down the street from us, requiring a spinal surgery and treatment for severe road burns. He was lucky to be alive. We spent over a month with him in the hospital dealing with specialists, surgery, and treatments. Weeks after his accident, my OTHER little brother was tragically killed in active duty overseas defending our country. With this news, we decided to move from Los Angeles to Virginia Beach to help care for his family and deal with years of life shaking, body numbing grief.
Sometimes in that season, it felt like I could hardly breathe. It was like waves kept crashing over me and I couldn’t stand up for air, no matter how hard I fought. I was exhausted and overwhelmed. But, I remembered what it felt like to have rest and operate in God’s strength – I was able to lean on that bring myself back there as needed – like in the middle of all that, I did have a life raft! The love of God and his words to me, telling me to seek Him and rest in Him in the good times, come flooding over me often. The Bible promises that when we seek God, we will find Him. I believe that because I was open to hearing God’s voice in the season of plenty, I had a true North Star, a compass in the darkness to His peace in my season of despair.
Often people think of seeking God when things are difficult, and then they forget about serving him and following him when He answers their prayers, and things settle down. Please believe, some of the best faith strengthening times in your life are when things are at their best. Life has seasons. We all will walk through hardship. I know from experience that the best time to prepare yourself for the next season, is to seek Him in this one. God has a fresh word for you right now, wherever you are in life. I pray that you never stop seeking that with your whole heart.