It seems like every time I’m scrolling the internet these days, I come across some sort of joke or sarcastic comment declaring the year 2020 as a terrible year, a waste of time, and that crazy bad things are just the norm these days. I’ll admit that I’ve been back and forth to that place too – feeling pretty hopeless, purposeless, stuck in a world where I had zero control of anything. 2020 has definitely been and continues to be a challenging year. The seasons shift, the challenges change, but in the midst of all the craziness God keeps showing up.
I was recently challenged by this statement: We do not serve a God of a wasted season.
Let me say it again for the people in the back: We do not serve a God of a wasted season!
Not only do we not serve a God of a wasted season, we serve a God who is purposeful, and who is in the business of restoration. We serve a God who is a creative Creator and who is making all things new and who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! None of the struggles and challenges of this year are a surprise to Him. Our God is good all the time – all the time our God is good, and so our God is good in 2020 – in 2020 our God is good.
In the book of Hosea, God likens the nation of Israel to a promiscuous woman, unfaithful and untrusting, seeking satisfaction anywhere but the presence of God. Purposed to restore Israel to Himself, God says in Hosea 2:14, “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” Did you catch that? God was the one who led His beloved into the wilderness. It was purposeful and intentional. Why? To allure her and speak tenderly to her. The chapter goes on to describe how God would restore and rebuild her life in a way that would bring her back to a loving relationship with Him.
God has led us into the wilderness – on purpose. This season where things seem more unpleasant and difficult than we’d prefer is not a waste and it presents some unique opportunities. As the need to seek God’s guidance and purposes becomes more apparent with each new challenge, we have the opportunity to consider it a blessing to be drawn to Him in pursuit of wisdom. As our sense of control and familiarity continues to wane, we have the opportunity to take joy in seeking direction from the One who is completely sovereign over all things. As we grieve what has been lost, we have the opportunity to look forward with expectancy to the new, good things God is doing in and through each of us, as well as the year 2020.
I’m excited to share this new song with you all on Sunday! I’d encourage you to take a look at the rest of Hosea 2 and the other Scripture passages listed below, and to listen to the recording of “Graves Into Gardens” as you prepare personally to worship corporately on Sunday.
Looking for some music to enrich your personal worship throughout the week? Check our Calvary Worship Favorites playlist on Spotify. It’s an assortment of songs that we sing on the regular during our Sunday worship services.
If you want to get a taste of what we’ll be singing on any upcoming Sunday, check out our This Sunday At Calvary playlist. This list is updated weekly with the songs we’re planning to lead at the upcoming Sunday service.
GRAVES INTO GARDENS
I searched the world but it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough
Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love
Oh there's nothing better than You
There's nothing better than You
Lord there's nothing
Nothing is better than You
I'm not afraid to show You my weakness
My failures and flaws Lord You've seen them all and You still call me friend
'Cause the God of the mountain is the God of the valley
And there's not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again
You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You're the only one who can
You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You're the only one who can
CCLI Song # 7138219
Brandon Lake | Chris Brown | Steven Furtick | Tiffany Hammer
© 2019 Music by Elevation Worship Publishing (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)
Maverick City Publishing Worldwide (Admin. by Heritage Worship Publishing)
Bethel Music Publishing
For use solely with the SongSelect®. Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License # 702888
Exodus 14:10-14, 21-22
As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
Psalm 34:8
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Ezekiel 37:1-14
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Matthew 6:19-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
John 15:13-15
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.