There is a time for everything. A Lesson from Ecclesiastes 3

 There is a time for everything we experience in life. God knows what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. He knows that there is an appointed time for every single thing under heaven. Nothing is new to him. All the seasons of life are normal parts of our days. God is with us through it all. He is there with us in every moment.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…” Isaiah 43:2

Times to laugh and cry. Times to plant and tear up. Times to speak and times to be silent.

Times to move to another country or change ministry positions or start a new work in a hard place. Times to sit by the pool, go for a run, read a book or watch Netflix.

Times to learn and grow. Times to put it all into practice.

Why is it that when circumstances aren’t “good” or going the way we desire, that we assume that something is wrong and out of control? To be sure, if we sin we should expect there will be consequences, but in the normal course of life there are ups and downs. Some people think everything that is “up” is of God and everything that is “down” is from Satan. Although this might be true at times, the greater truth is that God is sovereign and ALWAYS in control. If the greatest biblical examples such as Joseph, Moses, Daniel, David, Job, Paul, and so many others who experienced suffering and hardship within the will of God for their lives, then how should we deal with the same?

Ecclesiastes 3

1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

2A time to give birth and a time to die;

A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

3A time to kill and a time to heal;

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4A time to weep and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn and a time to dance.

5A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

6A time to search and a time to give up as lost;

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;

A time to be silent and a time to speak.

8A time to love and a time to hate;

A time for war and a time for peace.

9What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? 10I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. 11He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.