Apologies for delays in writing.  My hope is that this finds all of you well, and that you are finding encouragement each day through God’s Word, His Creation, and His people.  I’ve been preparing for my own wedding which despite what most people tell me, is actually quite a stressful endeavor.  Lots to plan, lots to do, and unfortunately, lots to pay for!  It’s good though.  All the challenges are worth what God has planned through it.  It’s that mindset; a considering of God’s plans, His eternality, and the fleeting nature of our time on Earth that prompted today’s writing from Ecclesiastes 3:1-15:

“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.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.  I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.  That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been”

I don’t have a great task in explaining the text above.  I don’t have a great burden to exposit a deeper meaning beyond what the text clearly reveals.  My purpose in sharing this text is to lift up our God up rightly, that we should both fear Him, and find joy in Him.  His sovereignty over all things is both fearsome and comforting.  We know that God has always been and always will be.  He has given that knowledge to us in our hearts.  It is what draws us initially to Him, that we know that is a greatness beyond what we can see with our eyes, beyond the time alloted to each of us.  Each of us enters into God’s story, born to parents chosen for us, given an upbringing chosen for us, purposed for work and works laid out for us.  For many, knowing this will illicit questions of why God allows pain, allows loss, but the text is clear – we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  Deuteronomy 29:29 – “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  So we worship a God we cannot fully understand, we stand in awe that He is all knowing, all powerful, and all good, even when we cannot see how.  We rest our souls in the goodness of God, because we believe and our hope is found , not with our eyes, but our faith that Love died that we would know and be reconciled to the God who Loves us beyond what we can know. (1 John 4:19, Rom 5:8).  As we look then, towards our God is beyond understanding and who has ordained a time for all things, we should embrace what we do know of Him to pursue our joy in Him as our lives overflow into good works.

My exhortation then is simple, let your heart rest in God.  Dwell on His sovereignty, dwell on His love for you, and consider all that He is for you in Eternity.  He is our treasure, and He is already ours through Christ.  Rest there, and find joy in God.  I’ll leave you with a quote from George Muller, a 19th century pastor who made it his life’s work to care for over 10,000 orphans:

“According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”
― George Müller

I hope this finds you all well.

Grace and Peace,

Adam