Everything is Made Beautiful in its Time

Thought of the day

In Ecclesiastes 3, the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, expounds on the times and seasons of our lives and how they all fit together. Life is not some vague process of subtle, illogical patterns placed willy-nilly in our path for us to puzzle over. It's a composite of definitives: joys and sorrows, gains and losses, giving and keeping, laughing and grieving, loving and losing...on and on until the last day arrives. 

-Luci Swindoll 

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

The God-Given Task

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 

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Our lives will go through seasons-some great...others not so great, it's just a fact of life. But I've come to learn that what we do with these seasons truly matters to God. He allows us to walk through the rough to find the beautiful in it. The hardship that we endure causes us to draw closer to God, and in turn, rely on His strength. These seasons allow us to come to a place where we are feeding our souls. 

On Sunday, Pastor Russ spoke a message titled, "Come as a Child." He stated that Jesus never misses an opportunity to teach His children something, just as a parent does with a child. We all have an insatiable need for Jesus-a need for him to be present in our lives. I love the fact that in Ecclesiastes 3:11 it also teaches us that God has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. He's placed that insatiable desire in us so that we'd run after him every day. We'll never arrive on this side of Heaven. There's so much to know of God. His character. His love. His endless pursuit of us. 

Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him. 

In our seasons of victory and seasons of defeat, God has called us to revere Him. To regard Him with respect, honor, and awe. To cherish, treasure, and esteem His name. 

With that, the questions I asked myself this morning were these: "Am I embracing every aspect of every season God has for me? Do I see the good in it and the beautiful God will bring out of it? Or am I forgetting that God allows us the hard times to grow closer to Him, and ultimately so He gets the glory for it? My prayer is that I'd be a woman who reveres Christ, even through hardships. As Christians, we are called to live our lives set apart, that the rest of the world may see Jesus through us. 

-Reanna