With her new album “Seasons,” award-winning Christian recording artist Natalie Grant wants to connect audiences to Christ’s unwavering faithfulness and His power to sustain His children as they walk through various stages of life.

Desiring for the songs to be relatable to listeners, Grant took a reflective look at her personal journey with the Lord when selecting songs for this album.

“Sometimes we think that God is going to get us out of the storm instead of realizing that He may have actually been preparing us for the purpose of going through the storm,” Grant shared. “We learn more about the character of the God we serve when we’re in the middle of the storm than we do when we are on the mountaintop. I had been saying, ‘Lord, get me out of these storms. Stop the storms.’ However, Jesus was saying, ‘No, I’m coming into your storm.’”

Following the birth of her third child in 2010, Grant suffered postpartum depression while resuming a busy touring schedule. During this time, her father was diagnosed with cancer and her nephew struggled with a heroin addiction.

“Postpartum depression was something I struggled with very privately and quietly,” Grant acknowledged. “I felt this shame and thought that I couldn’t talk about it because what kind of mother would I be, that I would be questioning the sovereignty of God? My daughter, Sadie, was the miracle that I didn’t know to ask for and a precious blessing to our family that we didn’t expect.”

Grant felt the storms intensifying all around her, but she was afraid to admit that the waves were about to come crashing down.

“My family was facing serious situations with my father and nephew that we had never experienced before, and I felt like the storms of life were pounding down all at once,” Grant said. “You get to this place where it’s like, ‘Enough, I just can’t take anymore!’ I found myself in this pit of darkness that I had never been in before. I had never experienced depression, and it was becoming harder each day to put one foot in front of the other. It didn’t make any sense to me, but I still couldn’t shake it. It was quite crippling for me, and I struggled for about 18 months.

“When I got to the place of admitting my brokenness, I think that’s when the Lord was able to take hold. Dealing with depression as a Christian artist was so shameful to me because I thought, ‘What kind of Christian am I? I’m singing all these songs and quoting all these Bible verses that I’m telling everyone else to follow, but I’m not believing it in my own life.’ I think that’s why I struggled longer than I should have because I just stayed quiet about it. Once I started to give a voice to it, I saw God using my weakness to show His strength and power. I ended up writing more songs on this record than I’ve ever written before. It’s amazing how the songwriting process became a catalyst for my healing.”

While sharing stories about trials and triumphs, Grant emphasizes to audiences the importance of surrendering weaknesses over to the Lord and relying on His power, protection and provision.

“My prayer is that these songs will be like an anchor to people,” Grant said. “When I hear stories about how these songs have impacted families and find out that God really did answer the specific prayers for them, it’s very humbling. If you listen to the record, it’s not a reflection of where I was living. It’s a reflection of where I believed I was going, and that is the result of having hope. Hope is what keeps the light on in the dark moments. Hope is the thing that helps us put one foot in front of the other, knowing that we may be in the midst of pain but believing that a better day is coming. I really wanted songs that were hopeful and full of encouragement because that’s what I was looking for in my own life.”

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