Seasons with God
Opening Prayer
Thank You, Lord, that You walk with me through every season and that You will bring Your beloved out to a place of peace.
Read ECCLESIASTES 3:1-15
[1] There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: [2] a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, [3] a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, [4] a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, [5] a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, [6] a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, [7] a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, [8] a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. [9] What do workers gain from their toil? [10] I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. [11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. [12] I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. [13] That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil-this is the gift of God. [14] I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. [15] Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What season are you in?“There is… a season for every activity under the heavens” (1). Some of the activities the Teacher lists are pleasurable and rewarding, others are painful and difficult. The “seasons” of life are unpredictable–we never know when we might be swept away from a season of laughter into a period of weeping, or transported from a time of mourning to a dancing fiesta. Frequently, we endure seasons that seem wasteful and unprofitable (9). From an “under the sun” (purely human) perspective, life may seem haphazard, arbitrary, a game of cosmic poker, where the luck of the draw determines the hand you are dealt. Verse 11 offers reassurance–the divine design will not be thwarted. God will bring beauty and harmony out of the ugliness and upheaval, yet this may not be within the timescales of our world but in the context of eternity, when God will bring to fruition his kingdom purposes. I cannot control the ebb and flow of life. What I do have control over is my responses. What is God teaching me in and through this season of my life? How will I live this season in a way that furthers or fulfills God’s divine purposes?
Apply
In this season of your life, take time to thank God for his eternal intention for good.
Closing prayer
Lord, I want to hear Your voice. Please speak to me and teach me of Your heart.
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