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Weekly Devotional

May 21, 2012

God’s Peace be with you all.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14  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 throw 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 throw 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.  ⁹ What gain have the workers from their toil?  ¹⁰ I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.  ¹¹ He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  ¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;  ¹³ moreover, it is God's gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.  ¹⁴ I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.

            Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is one of the more famous passages in the Bible.  These few verses remind us that there is an order to life, even in the midst of the craziness that we experience every day.  Often times it is these 8 verses that are used in special occasions of life.  I have seen them used at weddings, and I have seen them used at funerals.  This is a text that brings people back to reality, and bring them back to the message that God is at work.

            While 1-8 are popular verses, 9-14 are a part of this text that is often left out.  Verse 11 is especially important, as it tells us that “God has made everything suitable for its time.”  We don’t have all the answers, and guess what?  We don’t always need to know all the answers.  God’s gift in this text is that people are able to make it through all the various situations that life throws at us.  He does this so that people can have joy in life, and more importantly, so that people can be in relationship with God and stand before him.  So the next time that you have a difficult time with something, or when you have a joyous time, or when you have any of the moments like are mentioned in this text, remember that everything happens so that you can grow in your relationship with God, who is the one that has made it possible to do all these things in the beginning.

In our prayers this week:  Wayne C., Mike C., Jim A., Ann, Daniel, Pat, and Bobby 

God’s Peace,