Enduring Your Crushing Season
Crushing is a spiritual reference to difficult experiences that God uses to develop us before the blessing or breakthrough. Note - you do not have to endure endless amounts of crushing or suffering to be developed. There are times when the process can come with ease. Sometimes the greatest fruit that can come from us is born through the season of crushing designed to make us more spiritually mature. There are books that expound greatly on this very topic of crushing to help provide wisdom to navigate this particular season. A personal recommendation is T.D. Jakes, Crushing: God Turns Pressure Into Power. It is a book I read slowly and in its entirety a year ago that still resonates whenever I am enduring a season of crushing.
Let’s start here, when you initially recognize that you are in a crushing season you must immediately go into solitude to pray. This is setting a foundation to build your muscle of prayer and praying strategically to endure this season. Coupled with praying, you will need loving and genuine support because there will be times when you need to pour your heart out to someone who you trust to speak life over/into you. Crushing can be unbearable at times and will cause you to humble yourself to ask for your cup to be filled when it is emptied. Having the right person with the purest heart and intentions to cover you is imperative. Further, when enduring your crushing season you will have to make a resolve to not give up and find constructive ways to steward your mind. It can be easy to throw in the towel when you are in heavy discomfort and lack understanding as to why this season is happening. You have to tap into the deepest parts of your faith to keep going and trusting this too shall pass. The saying is true, an idle mind is the enemy’s playground, which is why finding constructive ways (i.e., volunteering, exercise, hobbies, reading the Bible, community efforts, gardening, etc.) to steward your mind will help you conquer this season.
Crushing is not the end of your story nor your destiny. Crushing is but a season that we endure throughout our lifetime for a divine purpose. Crushing will not break you nor will it leave you destitute if you take the proper precautions to lean into it and allow it to do its good work. There is no one size fits all method to enduring your season of crushing, but there are tools and self-management skills that will help you along the way. I am currently enduring a crushing season and I have been leaning into the tips I shared to get through it. With full honesty - it feels uncomfortable, it feels heavy, it feels like internally I am being stretched to my limit, and it is testing my resolve/strength to remain focused on what is ahead. However, I actively choose to stand on the promises of God that He will never forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6) and He has plans to prosper me and not to harm me (Jeremiah 29:11).
Joy Gem: “Your crushing is nothing more than the beginning of a glorious transformation process that will reveal to the world and you who and what you really are. Just like the grapes being trampled comes first, so does your crushing. There is more to come—so much more.” - T.D. Jakes
