I love this time of year. In this Season of Autumn, nature is a feast for the senses. If we look around us, the colours are beautiful. Caramels, bronzes, yellows, auburn reds, oranges and rusty browns. Leaves swish and crunch beneath our feet. Through these earthly changes we can so clearly see the gradual transition of one season to another. Nature is letting go so beautifully. It puts on a show for us as leaves are gradually shed, making ready for the next. 

I am comforted and challenged by the earth’s rhythms and seasons, and I sense God’s comfort and challenge amidst them. We are invited to stay and to go, to bring some things to an end and start some things anew. We are invited to rest, reflect and take stock, and to spring forth and flourish too. We are reminded that there is a time for everything. These are the ebbs and flows of life. And life is much like nature.  

As each season of life unfolds it brings different rhythms and challenges, opportunities and new beginnings. For Christians these seasons are part of a spiritual journey designed by God to shape, refine and draw us closer to him. Embracing them with faith and trust can lead to growth and a deeper intimacy with God. I know personally that in journeying with God through the seasons of life, in trust, and resting in him, he has been my strength. Like putting on layers in Autumn and Winter, God clothes us in his strength day by day. 

Each season in the Christian life has its purpose, and all seasons hold a place of value for our ongoing journey with God. As the leaves fall today, we are invited to pause and to shed old habits, attitudes and behaviours. The season can be challenging as it often involves letting go of the things that we once held dear.  It’s a time of invitation to prepare and tidy up in anticipation of new growth in the spring. It is also a time of harvest where previous hard work brings fruit.  

We can enter into each season with faith, knowing that God is present in every joyous or challenging moment. We can trust that God has a hold of our lives.  In every season the key is to remain rooted in Christ, to keep on trusting and to adopt a thankful heart.  
Jesus wants us to flourish and thrive just like the earth he created. Jesus said, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”  

Let’s embrace the adventure of the seasons and live as people who are invited to take hold of all our loving, gracious and generous God is pouring upon us. Isaiah 40:8 says “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” 

The natural seasons change, and our circumstances will change too. If we focus on God, he will always lead us closer to him. We will know him more deeply; we will be clothed in strength. He will be our strength. 

At Emmanuel we are currently exploring BRF’s Holy Habit’s. 

We are formed by our habits. What habits do you have? I am sure we will have healthy, and not so healthy habits. 

The “Holy Habits” or you may know them as Spiritual disciplines, can help us to become more like Jesus. They assist us in apprenticing under him as his disciples, guiding and encouraging us to do as Jesus did, and to enter into the rhythms he did. He invites us to go on an adventure with him, journeying deeply with him. 

When we practice Discipleship through the Holy Habits, we are formed and shaped, through the Spirit. Christ like character starts to come forth as juicy fruit, along with resilience, strength and faith to keep on going amidst all of the seasons we encounter and are invited into. 

 This Holy Habit adventure helps to ensure that in the joys and challenges of the whole of life, we are focused on Jesus, spending time with him, listening to him, moving out of a glad and thankful heart and expressing his love to others. They will, in time, cultivate a new way of living, that leads to abundance and fullness in Christ. Who doesn’t want to know and experience that? 

‘Holy Habits’ really are a way of life, eating together, talking together, praying together and all things in between. 

They include, Biblical teaching, Fellowship, Breaking bread, Prayer, Sharing resources, Serving, Eating together, Gladness and generosity, Worship and Making more disciples. 

The journey won’t be easy, after all, adventures seldom are. They involve some sacrifices and refining. It won’t always be comfortable. But we won’t want to miss out on this adventure with Jesus. 

Be encouraged to be attentive to your own personal discipleship as you practice these Holy Habits or disciplines amidst your church and local communities. Travel well, go deeply and restfully. As we continue to seek to step into following a Godly way of life that helps us to embrace each season, we don’t go alone but with the Spirit who leads and guides us. 

Revd Rachael Warnock.