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This Week’s Devotional Topic
SEASONS
As we go through ‘seasons’ in our lives, God uses them to conform us to His image….as if to help prepare us for enjoying eternity with Him in heaven. For example: when we go through times of illness, we learn things spiritually that we might not learn any other way. Like the way that we then know how to comfort others with the way we were comforted. I’ve heard it described as if some seasons in our lives are like a parenthesis. We move along status quo, then something takes place that sets us aside for a while….in the parenthesis. Then when we have learned and experienced what was necessary, we slip out of that and back into some sense of normal, but we are never the same after that time. Here are examples in scripture of this concept. God help us as we listen to recognize You at work in and around us. To be able to say with confidence and conviction – “God was here”. Just as if we could actually see the “fingerprints of God”.
Let’s start with the wisdom of Solomon found in
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
On this earth plants bring forth fruit in their ‘season’…
Deuteronomy 11:13-15 If you carefully obey all the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and soul, then He will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.
The Israelites went through many “seasons”….
Deuteronomy 16:6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
Another season of life referred to in scripture is found in…
Job 5:26 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season.
A Godly man is compared to a tree that bears fruit…
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Galatians 6:7-10 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Jesus Christ knew the importance of taking time away to pray, a season in prayer Matthew 14:22,23, also found in Mark 6 and Luke 6 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
And He involved disciples with him…
Luke 9:28 And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
In the fulness of time, toward the end of the parenthesis, God provided for us…
Romans 5:6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
God loves you so much that when the time is right, He will provide your needs, giving you strength to endure and then taking you from an uncomfortable parenthesis into good times.
My dear brothers and sisters, we are encouraged to ‘rejoice in all things’ and told that God will work these for good. Have confidence in that fact and comfort that in the fulness of time, “this to shall pass”.
This week’s Scripture:
Deuteronomy 11:13-15; 16:6; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Psalm 1:1-3; Job 5:26; Galatians 6:7-10; Matthew 14:22,23; Luke 9:28 and Romans 5:6
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