"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven..." – Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV)
Everything has its place and time before God. His purpose never goes unfulfilled, and His plans never go undone. He has made all things beautiful in its time, but it does take time: either sooner or later.
One thing that I want to talk about with regard to this is our cooperation to God's plans. While God surely doesn't do bad and evil things to us, there are times we think He does us harm. That's not true, friends. God is good, and wants the best for us. But in order for us to experience the best that He has planned for us, we need to cooperate with Him and follow hard after Him.
A Promise Of Abundance
The Lord Jesus Christ promised in John 10:10 that He came so that we'd have abundant life. The key to receiving that abundant life, however, is receiving Him as our Saviour, and giving up our lives to Him as our Lord. His promised abundant life can only come within the confines of His Lordship over our lives.
Submitting to the Lordship of Christ means letting go of all things that aren't His. We let go of the things that hinder us from pursuing Him. We let go of our own comforts, desires, and dreams if all these aren't His. While some might think that's painful, wait until He tells you "I don't know you" when judgment comes.
No, friend, don't wait for that time to come, ever. Follow Him while you still can. Follow Him.
A Time To Do These
Knowing this, here are some things that we should be willing to do as Christ's followers. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there's a time for everything, and that "everything" includes these.
1. 'A Time To Kill' (Verse 3)
Let me clarify: We are commanded not to literally kill. But there are some things that we should put to death if we want to follow Christ.
Put to death whatever earthly desire is in you (see Colossians 3:5). Put to death the desires of your flesh and allow yourself to live according to the Spirit of God (see Romans 8:12-13). Put to death your wrong desires to glorify yourself.
2. 'A Time To Refrain From Embracing' (Verse 5)
There are times when we need to have solitude. Yes, it's good to have friends and companions in the walk of Christianity, but it we want to grow we need to learn to refrain from being with people so that you can hear God, not public opinion.
There are also some things that we need to let go of as we move on to different seasons in life (see 1 Corinthians 13:11). The newly-married man has to let go of his childish, single ways. The new father has to learn to grow up and be a father to his kids. We all need to let go of some things if we want to embrace newer, better ones.
3. 'A Time To Gain, And A Time To Lose' (Verse 6)
As they say, "you win some, you lose some." That's not godly, biblical wisdom. In Christ we're all victors and more than conquerors (see Romans 8:37), but that doesn't mean we'll have it all nice and easy. We'll face some hardship, testing, and tremendous trials if we are bent on following hard after Christ. (see John 16:33)
Friends, there are times we feel like we're winning and gaining. It's also true that we'll have times where we feel like we're not advancing. What matters is that we continue holding on to our salvation, fighting the good fight of faith, and advancing the Kingdom of God by preaching the Gospel to all creation. (see 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7; Mark 16:15)
