the times they are a changin'

So I know for many of us we are a coming to an end of the season in our lives and starting to prepare for the next season. It may be that you are getting ready for GCSE’s, AS levels, A-Levels, Uni or even work!! 

Or maybe you haven’t even thought about it and just want to enjoy your summer. Well either way a new season is upon all of us and its how we prepare for our new seasons that matters! Instead of asking God 'why?!' all the time. Let's be those who ask “How can I honour you during this time”?

In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Solomon writes:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under Heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time for war, and a time for peace.”

For everything there is a season, in everything we do is during a time of a new season. Seasons can be hard and they can be easy! When we read in 1 Samuel about David, we see how he is running away from a King who is trying to kill him. He is going through a period of wilderness but God was preparing him to be King. In Genesis Joseph brothers sold him and he became a slave. The Joseph became a Governor over the land Of Egypt and his brothers came to him for grain. Joseph had to go through a season of hardship to build him up for what God had planned for him. In Exodus we read about how Moses ran away from the Pharaoh and his land and then returned to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. All these men that we read about in the Old Testament all faced hard times, whether it was prison, persecution, slavery or being hunted. God had bigger plans for all of these men but during those times of struggle they didn’t know what was to come. They had real faith in God and trust that he would help them through that time and trusted that it was only for a season and would get better.

In the New Testament it is very much the same story. Jesus was ridiculed, persecuted, slandered, beaten and nailed to a cross for the sake of our lives to have freedom from Sin. He endured and had strength and trusted in God’s plan. This then reflected of Peter and Paul, they were men who preached the gospel but were persecuted and eventually killed for trying to share the Gospel. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that he “has a thorn in his side” but yet he still perseveres and makes it his ambition (Romans 15) to share the Gospel. 

 

I’m not writing to say that we will face prison, persecution, or be ridiculed or to say that every day is going to be a battle. But to say that during those hard seasons, or times when things seem to be a struggle; we should trust that God has a plan for us and that it is a good plan.  God is working within us continually, even during the hard season where we don’t understand. In Philippians Paul writes “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”. God will not start a work in you and then not complete his work, we aren’t sculptures that he decides not to finish and give up on but we are his children whom he wants to give strength to.

When new seasons come we need to persevere and stay focused and centred on God for he is the only one who can give us strength and endurance to face these days. If there is one thing I have learnt this year it’s that our Father is a faithful Father who meets every need, calms every storm and gives strength when strength is needed the most. During these seasons take delight in God for he is good and is worthy of being delighted in. PRAY!