So many times throughout Scripture, God spoke at night. First Samuel records one particular time. Hannah was crying out to God for a baby. She had dealt with infertility for years, and she was bullied because of it. She made a promise to God that if He gave her a baby, she would dedicate him to God. God answered her prayer, and after her son was born, she took great care of Samuel and loved him. Hannah kept her vow and took Samuel to the tabernacle to be dedicated to the Lord and to grow up there and assist the priest Eli.[1]
First Samuel 3:1 says, “In those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.” As I read that, I wondered why visions were rare during that time. Then I discovered that Eli’s sons, who were also priests, were sinful and acting inappropriately.[2] God was silent, or perhaps He wasn’t being heard.
Then one night the Lord called Samuel by name while he was sleeping. Samuel ran to Eli and asked, “Eli, did you call me?” Eli said, “Nope, go back to sleep.” But Samuel kept hearing his name being called and kept asking Eli if he was calling for him. Finally, Eli realized who was trying to get Samuel’s attention and instructed him to listen to God. The Lord called again, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, your servant is listening” (verse 10). God called Samuel to become an amazing judge and prophet, and the messages of God were heard in the land once again because Samuel answered the call.
In your seasons of night, God is going to call you to something. He’s going to stir something in you because you’re going to hear His voice in new ways. Sometimes we think we get called when our lives are great or when all our i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed or when our lives are organized all neat and tidy. But God calls us in the night.
God called Samuel in the night, and He can call you during your night seasons too.
It’s so freeing and refreshing to know that we don’t have to stay in the dark times forever. When your sisters are walking through dark times, stir up the faith and hope within them by saying, “God wants to give you vision and clarity in the night. He wants to solidify His call on your life. He wants to give you marching orders for your next season. Don’t be so quick to get out of the valley and make it to the mountain, because He’s going to give you instructions in the valley on how to handle the mountain.” We need the vision that God is going to give us during the night seasons of our lives.
The more I looked, the more I saw God speaking words of hope and light in the night—even in the Christmas story: “That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them” (Luke 2:8–9).
These shepherds were thinking it was going to be just an ordinary night of faithfully taking care of sheep. Your ordinary night could include putting your kids to bed. You could be graduating and entering into a new season of the ordinary. You could be loving and serving your husband in a marriage that seems ordinary. But suddenly, God shows up. The shepherds were faithful; they showed up. Sometimes we just have to show up. We have to show up in our friendships; we have to show up in our marriages; we have to show up to our jobs—because God is birthing something through our faithfulness. Your “suddenly” is coming in your consistency. Your “suddenly” is set in motion by your obedience. You don’t know when your “suddenly” is going to hit. The shepherds didn’t know. They just showed up to a regular night of tending sheep; then angels came from heaven, declaring that a child had been born and telling them to go see the child.
The shepherds were in the right place at the right time; they were obedient, faithful, and consistent. They weren’t at church when their “suddenly” moment came; they were at work. For you, maybe that’s being at your husband’s side. For you, maybe that’s being faithful in school. For you, it could be staying friends with a woman who needs you. For you, it could be exercising but still not losing weight. But before you know it, that moment is going to come and breakthrough is going to happen. Do you know what happened to those shepherds? They saw Jesus, then ran to tell everybody that their Savior had been born. When that moment comes, God is going to allow you to use your story to tell others about His faithfulness and His goodness, not so you can take credit but so you can give Him all the glory.
When you feel like you can’t see, say, like Samuel, “Speak, your servant is listening.” When you don’t know what step to take, just show up. Show up to your job. Be present in your friendships. Be present in your marriage. Be present with God. Because this is the recipe for your moment to unfold. I just keep sensing that maybe you feel lost or don’t know what’s next and that’s driving you crazy. But God knows your future. He has it ordered and mapped out. He knows when you’re coming and where you’re going. He’s the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end. He’s not with us just on the mountain—He’s there in the valley too.
I gathered some promises that I believe will give you the grace to walk through a hard time of not knowing what’s next. I’m believing that, through these scriptures, God is going to give you vision when you’re walking through the night.
Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path” (NIV). God’s Word is our guide to help us see in times of darkness. So keep His Word close to you because He’ll be able to help you navigate the dark times.
Don’t come out of a dark time with nothing; come out with spiritual treasure.
In Psalm 32:8, the Lord said, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” I love that.
First Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” He loves you. He has an amazing future ready for you. Don’t despise the valley seasons. Don’t despise the times when you can’t see. Embrace them because they last only for a season.
Why not get through the season with more faith? Why not get through it with more wisdom? Why not get through it with more vision for your future? Don’t settle for nothing, as though you got robbed of that season of your life. Come out on the other side with new strength, new insights, and refined trust in God.
My son and I both faced intense physical sickness when we moved to Dallas in 2011. There were ER visits, two surgeries, and bed rest. I wouldn’t want to repeat that season, nor would I wish it on anyone. But I will say, because of that very dark time, I gained some spiritual stamina. I learned to cry out to God, because my life depended on it. I learned to have compassion and empathy for others facing hard seasons. I learned not to repeat cute Christian bumper sticker phrases but to be present for people even without using words. And I learned to rely on God for the breath in my lungs and for the endurance to stand when so much around me seemed to be crumbling. I found encouragement in Luke 21:28: “When all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”
You want to be stronger, wiser, more focused, and more in love with Jesus. You want to be more confident that without Him you can do nothing and more certain of His promises and His Word.
And in the meantime, while you’re waiting for the night to end and a sunnier season to dawn in your life, keep your ears open to hear God’s voice in the dark. You can trust that He’s with you, that He’s doing more than you see.
Let’s Pray
Jesus, I’m feeling blind, but I know You’re birthing something. I’m feeling weak, but I know a breakthrough is coming. I don’t know which way to go, but I know You are the way. Please help me not to give up but to press into Your presence like never before. Help me become the woman of God that You’ve called me to be. Give me eyes to see the future that You have for me. As I go about my day, open my eyes to see the lost, the hurting, and the broken. Wherever I go, please urge me to declare the goodness of my Savior and not myself. May my life be a city on a hill; may I live for Your fame and not my own. And may this change in me ignite change in my generation.
16 Power in the Seed
Our eight-year-old, Grayson, brought me some seeds and told me that he was going to plant an apple tree. I thought that was so cute. He planted it and we watered it. Every day, he would get frustrated because a tree hadn’t grown yet. We ended up selling that house and moving, so we never got to see what became of those apple seeds, but I like to imagine the next family discovering a little sapling in their new yard.
We get frustrated with our lives, but God knows the potential of seeds. He’s tending to the seeds in your life in ways that you don’t even know. Sometimes we look at the seeds of our current season and feel as if they aren’t enough. We look at the seeds of our relationships, compare them with others, and think our relationships aren’t enough. We look at the seeds of our kids, compare them with other families, and think our children aren’t enough. I want to tell you that the future is in the seed. Don’t despise small beginnings, and don’t despise your seed season, because the reason we’re here today is that so many women planted seeds of prayer, peace, and hope before us and we’re reaping the harvest. Now it’s our turn to steward the seeds that God has given us, because His plan for the world isn’t done.
Don’t despise your seed season. He’s just getting started.
I’m going to challenge us and encourage us to steward the seeds in our possession, because we’ve been called for such a time as this. I know sometimes we all think, What can God do with this life? My friends on social media seem like they have it all together. Their pictures are always perfect. Everybody’s hair is just right. The filter’s just right. Then we look at ourselves with sleep in our eyes and coffee spills on our pajamas, and we think, My life’s not worth anything. But I’m here to tell you that it is. We can’t compare ourselves with pictures on social media, because they’re not real. Our standard is the Word of God, which is the mirror that we’re called to look into. If you’re dealing with any type of mess in your health, your family, your finances, or your business, God can breathe life into it, and that situation will yield a supernatural harvest. Don’t despise your seed season; see it as a key to your future and as a gift for the next generation. The girls coming up after us are watching how we conduct our friendships, they’re watching our text responses, and they’re watching our selfies. Then they’re emulating us. We want the seven-, eight-, nine-, ten-, fifteen-, and twenty-year-olds to know their value in Christ. We want them to know that they don’t have to starve themselves or compare themselves with anyone, because they’re fearfully and wonderfully made.[1] They’re watching us because it’s our turn. Are you ready to steward the seeds that God has given you?
God talked about a seed in the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:15 reads, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (NKJV). Adam and Eve had everything they could have ever wanted. God gave them everything in the garden, except for just one tree. They lived in a beautiful place but still had their eyes on what they couldn’t have. How many of us have been planted in a great family but have our eyes on the apple we can’t have? How many of us have great relationships but have our eyes on the relationships we don’t have? Adam and Eve focused on what they couldn’t have. Then the Enemy came and tempted them with the very thing they were forbidden to have. There’s nothing better than what you have right now. The life that God has given you is a gift, and if you plant in it, water it, and steward it well, you will reap a harvest.
Sin entered the world in the garden, but God always had a plan. Even when Adam and Eve turned their backs on Him, He still had a plan. His plan was Jesus Christ, who was placed as a seed in a woman. Jesus defeated death, hell, and the grave. He is our plan for freedom and salvation. God trusted a woman with the seed of Jesus Christ just like He’s trusted you with various seeds. Guess what your seeds are going to do? They’re going to bruise the head of the Enemy. The seed of your college season can bruise the head of the Enemy. The seed of your marriage can bruise the head of the Enemy. The seed of your stay-at-home-mom life—where you feel like, I’m so bored. I miss working. I’m so sick of these kids—can bruise the head of the Enemy.
I just want to encourage you that God sees you even if your situation seems minuscule to you. His eyes are on you every single day, and He’s proud of you. He’s pleased with you. He loves you.
Maybe you wonder, Why would He choose a seed? Well, seeds are packed with potential, and that same potential exists inside the seeds that God has given you. Potential lies in every season.
I think sometimes we want what other people have attained and are discontent with our own lives in comparison. What we don’t know is that person stayed at their God-assigned post for thirty years. What we don’t see are those nights that they didn’t sleep and laid hands on that husband who seemed like he’d never go to church. What we don’t see is how they paced the hall outside their children’s rooms, praying, “I plead the blood of Jesus Christ over my children and pray that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. I declare that they are the head and not the tail.” We see these parents’ mature, respectful children, but we don’t see the seed season. I want to encourage you to enjoy the seed season. Don’t get annoyed with it, and don’t regret it, because this season is an opportunity for God to work.
Keep your childlike faith in Him, and don’t give up. He wants to breathe life on every single seed that you steward. See your frustrations as seeds. Speak life to them, treasure them, guard them, pray over them, and don’t give up hope.
One of my girlfriends, Betsy Baldwin, is a wedding coordinator. She creates detailed floral designs for all the beautiful weddings that she plans. Many of you already have Pinterest pages for your wedding and have already chosen your flower arrangements, your colors, and your dress, but you don’t even have a man yet. That’s okay; you can dream. But so many times we focus on the desired outcome. We see those beautiful centerpieces. We see the bouquets. We see the flowers and want that beautiful ceremony. But guess what? Betsy sat at a table for hours picking every single dead leaf and every single thorn from the flowers. The flowers didn’t start in beautiful arrangements. The marriage that I have now didn’t begin this way. It was a seed. I just want you to know that if you steward your seed well, something beautiful will unfold. We have to plant our seeds and steward them well. We can’t give up or leave our post. The Enemy lures us into quitting because we see our relationships, jobs, or dreams only in seed form, but bouquets come from beautiful flower fields that began as seeds.
Don’t compare your current seeds to another’s bouquet.
I don’t know what is in seed form in your life right now. I don’t know what land in your heart feels like a desert wasteland, but I just want you to know that God is calling us to steward our seed seasons well because a harvest is waiting. We can’t despise the little. We can’t minimize the little, because the future is in the seed. God wants to give us hope, peace, and joy. But those fruits of the Spirit come not by idolizing the bouquet but by getting our hands dirty in the planting. Those virtues come when we don’t give up. They come in prayer. They come when we see the potential in something as small as a seed.
Maybe you need to be reminded that your life’s not over. Your seeds mean something. Think about your marriage, family, and friends. Think about your college education. Think about your thought life. Think about what’s burdening you. Those are all seeds. See them in the same way that God sees them. Pray over those seeds and trust Him. Maybe you’ve left an angry husband, and you were afraid to return home. God sees that seed. Maybe you have some ill-mannered, disrespectful children, and you wonder if there’s hope that they will change. God sees that seed. Maybe you’re stewarding a beautiful business, but no growth is occurring. God sees that seed. Maybe you’re attempting to think life-giving thoughts by soaking in the truths of this book, but the old thoughts are trying to push the new mindset out. God sees that seed. He sees what’s plaguing your mind, and He says, “Sweetheart, I’m renewing your mind. Sweetheart, your thoughts are not My thoughts. Sweetheart, your ways are not My ways. Sweetheart, I think higher. I think better. I think greater for you. Don’t settle. Steward that seed.”
Don’t settle. Steward that seed.
“The Lord will guide you continually,” reads Isaiah 58:11, “giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” Do you feel dry? God wants to restore your strength.
God sees your tears. He sees your doubts. He sees your fears. What seems insignificant now, when carefully prayed over, planted, and cultivated, can become a stunning garden.
Remain on the Vine
