Let’s take our Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes 3. If you’re visiting with us for the first time, welcome. We’re in a series of expositions in the book of Ecclesiastes and we’re in a multiple sermon exposition of Ecclesiastes 3. The sermon is entitled, It’s About Time because this chapter is all about time. So let’s pick up the thread of Solomon’s thinking here in verse one. “To every thing there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, a time to heal; a time to break down, a time to build up; a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn, a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, a time to lose; a time to keep, a time to throw away; a time to tear, a time to sew; a time to keep silent, a time to speak; a time to love, a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.
What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? Have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and do good in their lives and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, nothing taken from it. God does it that man may fear before Him. That which has already been and what is to be has already been and God requires an account of what has passed.”
Well, we trust God will use His word in each of our lives this morning. For a number of years, a clock hung on our kitchen wall, which was given to us by a fellow pastor at our wedding. It was made of wood, it was rectangular in shape and it had a decorative face. One of the unique features of this clock was that in the face of the clock were embossed these words “Lord of time.” And so every time I looked at that clock on the kitchen wall, I was reminded of two things on a daily basis. One, that there was no time to waste. Life is lived under the gun of knowing that our days pass by us like a weaver’s shuttle. The sands of time are indeed sinking, to borrow words of the old hymn. And someday, you and I will give an account for the things done in our body at the judgment seat of Christ. And that’s a sobering thought. The fact that God has invested each and every day with 1,440 golden minutes that He wants me and you to spend wisely.
He’s Lord of time and someday I will stand before Him and fall on His feet and give an account for the days that He sent my way. I was reminded in looking at that clock that I could not kill time without injuring eternity. But there was a second thing, I was not only reminded that there was no time to waste, I was reminded that my times were in God’s hands. See, the one thought was challenging. This second thought was comforting, that God is the Lord of time, my time, my little family’s time at that time, that God had chosen my days for me and the times that the De Courcy home would go through, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 139, “The days of my life were all prepared before I even lived one day.” I was reminded as George Mueller once said that, “If my circumstances find me in God, I will find God in my circumstances,” there was no time to waste. He’s Lord of time. I will give an account of my days to Him. And my times are in His hands. He’s Lord of time, my time.
Whatever He puts me through, He goes through with me. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon wrestles with the thought that God is the Lord of time. He moves from skepticism to faith, from an under-the-sun perspective to an above-the-sun perspective, and he notes that life is not a hapless cycle of meaningless events, but a purposeful progression of God-appointed events. He understands that there’s a time and a season to every thing and every purpose under heaven. Solomon’s seeking to understand the purpose to life, the point to life, the profit to life. He understands that if life is to have a purpose, then time must have a point and he concludes that it does. Philosophically then, he concludes that life has purpose because history has a God-ordained end. He’s not at the mercy of fate. He lives under the canopy of God’s providential control and God’s providential care. And so Solomon outlines this thought here that God is the Lord of time. He does it by looking at the blending of time, the sanding of time and the ending of time.
The last time we were together, we worked our way through verses 1-8 it and made reference to verse 11. On a number of occasions we reminded ourselves that God orders the events of life, that everything happens under His watchful eye, guided by His sovereign hand. Solomon looks at life in all its totality. He does it here in the form of a poem and he brings us to see that whatever times we go through, God puts us through, God goes through with us and in time He will make it all beautiful. We unpacked that. We sought to understand that and then we started making some practical applications. Number one, we need to come to terms with the sovereignty of God. Number two, we need to prepare for change and drop the happy-ever-after myth. Well, here’s a third thought. Number three, whatever time you are in, redeem it and don’t reject it.
The whole chapter here is centered upon the idea of time and God’s management of it, God’s use of it and as we think about God’s use of it, let’s think about our use of what God sends our way. By implication, you and I need to make the best of the time that God has apportioned and appointed for us. It’s a fragment of eternity given by God to man as a solemn stewardship. Therefore, we’re not to twiddle with time. Paul would put it like this, wouldn’t he? In Ephesians 5:15, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise but understand what the will of God is.” The Christian is to buy up time to actively take advantage of the moment that they are in for ministry purposes and for the extension of God’s glory and the growth of God’s kingdom. When we read this verse in Ephesians 5, we tend to interpret it from a time management perspective, but that would be to miss the point.
The point of Ephesians 5:16 is not that you and I work at shaving five minutes off this task or that task. Remember, if the devil cannot make us bad, he’ll make us busy. No, the intent of the passage is to get us to do the right things in a society gone wrong. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Paul will talk about the fact that those days are dark days and so redeeming the time means to walk in the light, to share the light. Redeeming the time means that we will act as children of light in a world of increasing darkness. Redeeming the time is not a matter of a clock, it’s a matter of a call. Living out the call of God upon our lives, instructing ourselves in a manner, Ephesians 4:1, “Worthy of the gospel.” So redeeming the time means that we understand the times we’re in and we act accordingly. It’s not how much we do, but what we do is really the issue. It’s living to a set of kingdom passions and priorities.
In his book on Ecclesiastes, Ken Gangel of DTS talks about the importance of priorities. He tells the story of a man in Germany who recently made a clock using nothing but straw, and this clock worked. Can you imagine that a clock made of straw that actually works as moving parts? It took him 17 years to complete this clock. When he was asked how long he expected it to run, he said two years. Do the math. He spent 17 years, he invested 17 years to produce something that would only have an effect and an influence for two. I’d say that’s mixed up, messed up priorities. Wouldn’t you? You and I as Christians need to be careful that you and I don’t become prey to mixed up, messed up priorities. God’s going to put us through certain times, times that He has sovereignly appointed for us, times that will involve good things and bad things, gaining and losing, living and dying, crying and laughing, and so we need to make peace with the sovereignty of God.
We need to prepare ourselves for change and ditch the happily-ever-after myth and we need to redeem the time we are in. Fourthly and finally under this thought, we’ve got to live each day with the end in mind, live your whole life knowing that it’s going to come to an end. That’s where this poem begins, isn’t it? The whole thing’s bracketed with this idea, “There’s a time to be born and a time to die,” and what follows takes place between those two points and God has appointed that time. There will be a time when we will breathe our last. And do you know what? If these are the experiences that we’re going to go through, if these are the events we’re going to face, then one would conclude, would one not, of the importance to think about the time to die. You need to give more thought to that than any other thing because of its nature, because of its everlasting consequences.
In fact, in Ecclesiastes 7:2 we’re told this, “Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For that is the end of all man and the living will take it to heart.” We need to take death to heart in the midst of life. We don’t like that thought. We tend to run from that thought, but the Bible encourages us not to run from the thought of our demise but to run towards the thought of our demise, to have it right here in front of us on a daily basis. “Number your days and apply your hearts onto wisdom,” Psalm 90:12. We tend not to do that. We have tried to leech the presence of death from everyday life in any way possible. We don’t want to face the reality of our demise and our death, but there’s a hundred percent chance that you and I will die apart from the rapture. And you and I ought to think about our death in the midst of our living because it’s a sobering, sanctifying influence on our life. You need to meditate on your death.
To meditate on one’s death is a good thing because it presses us towards Christ. Faced with the reality of death that no man has power in the day of his death. It presses us towards Christ who says, “I’m the resurrection and the life.” Jesus has an answer for the question of death and the more we think about death, the more we’ll think about Him, it’s a good thing. It attaches exceeding value to each day, doesn’t it? When we realize things are in a short supply, we add extra value to them. It helps us separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of the important things in life. It adds a greater dimension and appreciation to all that we hold dear, for some day we may not hold it, that which we can’t fear. So we tend to think that meditating upon death is a morbid thing that belongs to the Victorian era. The Bible would say, “Hey, it’s better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting.” Meditate upon your death.
In fact, Jonathan Edwards made this resolve to himself, “Resolve never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if I were in the last hour of my life.” He’s meditating upon his death and he uses it as a sanctifying influence, as a means of mortification of the flesh, as a means of holding material things loosely, as a means of what will be important when that moment comes. It’s not morbid, it’s motivating. The press of death should cause us to squeeze all that we can out of life. The thought of death ought to act as a razor that cuts away the superfluous and vain things that often occupy us, challenging us to pursue those things that are of a higher heavenly calling. Many of you know that before entering the ministry and while I was actually training for the ministry, I spent six years in the Royal Ulster Constabulary. I was a police officer in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles.
At the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland with the terrorism that was going on, Interpol believed that the policing role in Northern Ireland was one of the most dangerous in the world. We were losing officers almost on a daily basis. We were more likely to be killed off duty than on-duty, and so I carried my weapon wherever I went. I checked under my car for booby traps almost every single morning of my life. I varied my travel so that I didn’t set a pattern that the terrorists could use to ambush me more easily. When I hung my uniform in the cupboard at the station and went home, I lived under the shadow of death to such an extent I think at times made kissing my wife all the sweeter, it made hugging my girls all the sweeter. It made me look at life and try and live in a way that counted for eternity because the thought of death was never far from me. I imagined my death on many occasions.
I wondered someday, would I crawl up in bed as an old man or would I be blown to pieces? Would I be shot? Would I be maimed in an under car booby trap? You say morbid, but in some sense it was morbid, but I find it very motivating. It tended to cleanse my motives. It tended to make me wiser and my choices. It tended to make me enjoy the moment I was in because I wasn’t guaranteed the next. There’s a time to be born and there’s a time to die and you and I need to think often of our death, that will press us towards Christ. It will cause us to live eternally and significantly. That’s the blending of time. Let’s make a start at what Solomon continues to think about here in what I call the sanding of time. This takes us into verses 9-15. Solomon has established convincingly that God is the one who winds up the clock of time. He governs its every movement. He governs its every moment. God is apart from and above time, but God is involved in time.
Do remember this morning that God existed before time? That time is a creation. I believe in the literal understanding of Genesis 1-3. I believe what we have detailed historically and accurately for us in Genesis 1&2 is the unfolding of God’s creative action over a six-day period where God marks out time in mornings and evenings, and He rests on the seventh day. God created time, space and matter, and you and I are bound by it but He is not. God created time and God keeps time. Time does not master Him as it masters us, it serves Him. It does His bidding. He’s the one who has a purpose for everything done in time under heaven. He’s above it. He’s apart from it and he’s involved within it. The God of the Bible and the father of our Lord Jesus is not the God of deism removed and unmoved. According to Solomon, Father Time and Mother Nature have nothing to do with the governance of our lives and the details and dimensions of our human existence. We live governed and guided by God’s sovereign superintending hand. Now I think we got that down.
God is the one who sands time. God is the one who appoints and apportions time. But it does raise the question, what’s our part in the plan, if any? What is our role, if any, in the unfolding drama of human existence? And it’s no wonder we should ask that question because according to Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has put eternity in our hearts. The one who makes everything beautiful in its time put eternity in our hearts. Now, the meaning of that phrase is this, that man innately reach for the transcendent. We have more than a sneaking suspicion that there’s more than our eye can see and our hands can touch. There’s a depth and a dimension to life beyond the vision of the naked eye. Deep down, we know that what matters is not matter. Each and every human soul has this innate impulse to press beyond the limits of this present world and reach for the stars. Sadly, for some that takes them to the seance, to the fortune-teller. Others, it has them visiting church to hear about a life to come, a dimension to the human existence that’s beyond the five senses.
It’s no wonder we probe into time. Its start, its finish. Its meaning what lies beyond it. Solomon does it here and he acknowledges that we do it because eternity is in our heart. We’re created after the image of God. We want to know what the future is. We want to know our place in an ever expansive universe. Wanting to know what’s up with life and getting to know what’s up with life but are two different things. We want to know what’s up with life, but Solomon reminds us that though eternity is in our heart, we cannot look, at the end of verse 11, find out the work that God does from beginning to end. Solomon acknowledges that because of our finiteness and our fallenness, we end up with a view of life that’s limited, narrow, incomplete. We have a key whole perspective on human history. No one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. The thimble of our mind cannot hold the ocean of God’s plans and purposes. We know that God’s will, according to verse 14, is perfect, vast and eternal.
I know that whatever God does it shall be forever. Nothing to be added to it, nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before Him. And by implication, if it’s eternal and it’s vast and it’s perfect, then to us it will always be inscrutable. We’re never going to get our hands around it. We’re never fully going to comprehend the time we’re in, the times that lie beyond our time, the eternity that’s beyond this human experience. One commentator put like this, “Consider a two-year-old taking quantum mechanics from a teacher of physics. The teacher is clever, witty, enthusiastic. He even has puppets of Heisenberg and Einstein. Can he teach quantum theory in such a way that a two-year-old will learn? No. The deficiency is not with the teacher. It is with the student. The material is far too lofty for minds occupied with where’s the next meal coming from and the need of a diaper change.” That’s the analogy.
There is a God who has a season for everything and a purpose to the times that we go through and Solomon gives us a sample and a summary of those times. And because eternity is in our heart because we’re made after the image of an eternal God, we want to get our hands around it on our heads around it, but we can’t. We never will. This anticipates Paul, right? We know in part, that’s where we’re at. That’s why today you’re holding up a piece of your life’s puzzle and you’re going, “Lord, where in the world does this go? Surely this doesn’t make sense.” But there are two things in these verses we do want to grasp and we can grasp and we’re going to cover one of them this morning, but let me outline them. “Time is governed by God,” verse 11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Here we are occupied with the task that God gives men, according to verse 10.
Here we are trying to grasp the significance of our lives and it leads to much confusion and consternation, but this we do know and we’re told to believe this, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Time is governed by God. Secondly, time is gifted by God. Verse 12, “I know that nothing is better than that man would rejoice and do good all their lives and every man should eat, drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God.” We’ll get to this next time. Basically, the whole point of verse 12 is this, although you cannot comprehend all that God is doing, therefore you cannot comprehend all that there is to be experienced and all that there is to be enjoyed, don’t let that stop you and join the moment you’re in. You don’t have to have all the answers to life’s questions to enjoy your wife’s love, your children’s admiration, a good steak, a cold drink on a hot day or a piping hot cup of coffee on a winter’s morning. Nothing better than that.
That’s not concluding that we’re kind of ants in an anthill. It’s just simply saying, you know what? Even in the midst of what you don’t understand, you will find that God gives you enough things to enjoy, to rejoice in over his kindness. Time is governed by God. Let’s spend a few minutes looking at this. While we may not know all that God is up to at a given moment, we do know that when he’s finished with it will be fitting beautiful and appropriate. Remember, we saw that’s the meaning of that word beautiful. It’s used in Ecclesiastes 5:18 where it’s translated proper. It’s beautiful thought, isn’t it? But whatever we’re going through, good or bad, we like it or we don’t like it, that it has its proper place and it has its clear purpose in the plan of God for your life and my life. He makes it all proper, appropriate, fitting. You may hold it up right now, the week you’ve just gone through, the month you’ve just gone through, the last year you’ve just gone through and you’re not sure what God is up to, “Where does this fit, Lord?”
He’ll make it all beautiful in its time. God’s governance of history is an act of artistry. Life is not a series of hapless disjointed events. There is a designer label sewn into the lining of this world and in the end, God will waste nothing of our lives. Amen. He will waste nothing of our lives. That’s why in time you’ll see that there’s a purpose to that tragedy, there’s a reason to that calamity and there is a kindness in that difficulty. That’s good to know. And if you’re with us in the study of the life of Joseph, you’ll have seen that play it out. Where Joseph ends up becoming the prime minister of Egypt, saves his family, protects the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He announces that to his brothers in Genesis 45 and in later in Genesis 50, “You didn’t send me here, God did. What you meant for evil God meant for good.” He announces that when he’s 30.
His brothers come down during the famine to get some grain from Egypt and they learn, “Hey, sniveling, little Joseph is the prime minister of Egypt and he holds our life in his hands.” Can you believe that? They shake in their boots. They crawl before him begging for mercy and he says, “Guys, don’t worry. God sent me. God’s in this.” Now, he says that when he’s 30, he was sold into slavery at 17. It took him a while to grasp that 17 years before he realized God makes it all beautiful in its time, but He does. Making everything beautiful in time requires timing, but God’s the Lord of time. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about the punctuality of God, that means you’ll be at church in time because God’s punctual. You can arrive late to the worship of God, but God will never arrive late to the needs in your life. It’s the kind of God you worship. It’s the kind of God you serve. Some of us are not that punctual.
I like the story of the husband and wife who were going at it. He shouts up the stairs, “Will you hurry up? If you don’t get a move on, we’ll be late.” She shouts down, “Stop nagging me. I’ve been telling you for the past hour I’ll be down in a minute.” That’s us, isn’t it? But God’s punctual. Write these verses down in Galatians 4:4, “In the fullness of time God sent forth His son.” The word fullness there carries the idea of that which has ripened and made ready. Romans 5:6, “For when we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Acts 2:1-4, the day of Pentecost. What do we read? “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, the spirit comes and they’re all filled with the Holy Ghost.” God wasn’t late at Bethlehem. God wasn’t late at Calvary. God wasn’t laid at Pentecost.
Listen to these words by Ian McPherson in an interesting sermon entitled The Punctuality of God. “It is the supreme paradox of history that the eternal God is always on time. He who stands beyond the ordered sequence of temporal events pays the strictest attention to the march of the moments and plans His interventions in terrestrial affairs, are what looks to us like interventions. For God is within His world as well as above it, eminent as well as transcendent with the greatest possible care and precision. He is a punctual God. That’s why he’ll make it all beautiful in its time.” Don’t have time to turn to these, but remember when Saul was looking for those lost donkeys in 1 Samuel 9? He meets Samuel at the appointed time sat by God. Remember Mary and Joseph had traveled to Bethlehem for the census, at the same time she gave birth to Jesus fulfilling Micah 5:2? Remember that exact moment when Peter denies Jesus for the third time and the rooster in the courtyard crows twice fulfilling the prophecy of Jesus in Matthew 26?
Remember the ram caught in the thicket at the exact moment where Abraham’s going to plunge the knife into the chest of his son Isaac? Coincidence? No, providence. The punctual God who’s never early, who’s never late. The ancient of days is always on time, therefore, He will make it all beautiful in its time, because His timing is always perfect. Tell you a story. Saturday morning, many, many years ago in our home, we were putting our coats on to go out the door. The girls were small. We were going to one of our favorite towns in Northern Ireland to shop and eat lunch, Portadown. We were almost out the door when the phone rang and I decided to take it. Turned out it was my mom. She says, “You know what, Philip? Are you’s okay?” I said, “Yeah, we’re good.”
She says, “I don’t know. I woke up this morning burdened for you and the girls and Jen. I was anxious. I was disturbed and prayed for you and then I decided to give you a call.” I says, “Mom, we’re good. I don’t know what’s going on there, Mom, with mother’s tuition and all of that, but we’re good.” She was happy, and so we put the phone down. We get in the car and we headed towards Portadown about 15 miles from our home just as we were coming to the outskirts of the time, a huge explosion, rocks our car, frightens the wit side of us and we see stuff flying through the air in the distance. There was a huge car bomb that the IRA had set in this Protestant town in Northern Ireland to wreck carnage and wreckage. We weren’t going to Portadown that day. But we later learned that the area we normally park in was badly damaged by the explosion.
And I kind of worked it out in my head a couple of days after this, “You know what? If my mom hadn’t have called, we probably would’ve arrived in that car lot just as the bomb was going off.” We were running late to Portadown, were we? Maybe not. Maybe God was making everything beautiful in its time. Was it a mother’s intuition? Was it a nudge of providence? Maybe a combination of both? But I was reminded that day that there’s a time to be born and there’s a time to die and that wasn’t our day to die. God makes it all beautiful in His time. He’s punctual and the knowledge of His gracious purposes and His grand design provide us a font of encouragement. Couple of little thoughts here quickly. If you think about this, this is to take home. Then you need to give God time and you need to trust God in the meantime, okay? Just give me a few minutes to get this across because you’re going to live this this week, okay? We’re buying into the idea that God is sovereign.
He appoints the times we go through the things we face. Some of it we don’t understand. We don’t understand what God’s up to from beginning to end. It’s a kaleidoscopic movement of innumerable pieces that He puts together masterfully, sovereignly, unerringly, wisely. Therefore, I’ve got to give Him time to make it all beautiful. Give Him time, He’ll make it all beautiful in its time. That’s why Job says, “When I am come forth, I will be as gold.” That’s why James says, “Let patience have its perfect work. God’s work in us and for us takes time.” But sometimes we act impetuously like the horse. Sometime later, look at Psalm 32:9 where God says, “I’m going to guide you with my eye. Be not like the horse. Be not like the mule.” The horse stampedes out of fear. The horse is impetuous animal raring to go, has to be restrained by the rider. God says, “Don’t you be like that. If I’m going to guide you, don’t be like the horse running ahead of me. Don’t be like the mule fighting me.”
The sovereign purposes of heaven and life are a kaleidoscopic movement of innumerable pieces all dovetailing together into a masterful work of God that ripens perfectly and precisely at an appointed time to our greatest advantage. Amen. What? Amen. I like the old preacher’s story as the team comes up of the man who asked God how long a million years was to him. God says, “A second.” The man perks up, “What about a million dollars?” God says, “A penny.” The man gathers himself up and asks the Lord if He’d give him one of His pennies. God says, “Certainly, just a moment.” It’s a fictitious story, but it makes a point. A day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Are you willing to trust God? Even at this moment, He may not explain what he’s doing right now, but maybe the good of it will turn up in the next generation. Are you willing to trust Him, give Him time to make it all beautiful in its time?
And then you’ve got to trust him in the meantime. It’s hard in the hallway between a bitter past and a better future. That’s why David says in Psalm 62:8 that we must trust the Lord at all times. In the meantime, in the mystery, under the clouds of what God is up to beyond our human perception, are you willing to give God time? Are you willing to give Him your trust? Are you willing to give Him the benefit of the doubt that He’s doing something right now in the middle of what you don’t like, what you don’t want? That’s because of the immensity of His person. That’s because of the incomprehensibility of His plan. That’s why we’re told in Ecclesiastes 3:14 that God does all of this so that man might fear Him. Perhaps right now you’re feeling small, feeling confused, maybe even feeling victimized. Well, you’ve got to give God time and you’ve got to trust Him in the meantime. That means fearing Him.
What does it mean to fear God? It’s not to cringe in His presence. We don’t need to do that because of the advocacy of the Lord Jesus, but it does mean we understand how awesome He is, how overwhelming His presence and power. We understand He’s in control and life may seem like an unfinished Rubik’s Cube, but we’ll fear Him. We’ll trust Him. We’ll ask questions, but we’ll never question Him. We’ll embrace the idea that there’s no panic in heaven, only plans. What is to fear God? It is to submit to His will. It is to be silent in His presence. It is to be steadfast in your faith, even in the face of life’s harshest realities. It’s to give God an unwavering blind trust despite what your eyes see and despite what your emotions feel. You’ll say with Job, “When I’m come forth, gold.” I’m going to endure. I’m going to let patience have its perfect work. I’m going to trust Him at all times.
Closing story, you’ll like this. 1895 seems like a long way back, but there’s nothing new under the sun. This speaks to us today. Andrew Murray was in England suffering from a terrible back. He’s a South African evangelist. He was doing some ministry in England. He’s held up in a hotel room. He’s confined to his bed. His breakfast is delivered by his hostess, who tells him that there’s a girl down in the dining room who knows that Andrew Murray’s here, knows that he’s this evangelist, a man of God and she’s gone through a tough time and was wondering if he had any advice for her. He takes a piece of paper and he writes down this, listen. “In time of trouble, say, first He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this straight place, in that will I rest. Next, He will keep me here in His love and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child. Then he make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intended to learn, working in me, the grace He means to bestow. And last but not least, in His good time, He will bring me out again high, and when I do not know, but He knows.”
That’s good, isn’t it? In fact, he summarizes it for this lady, “Therefore, say, one, I am here by God’s appointment. Two, in God’s keeping. Three, under God’s training. Four, according to God’s time.” Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for our study this morning. May we hide your word in our heart that we may not sin against you in unbelief, in unholy thoughts about you, your plans and purposes. Lord, we would hit the pause button this morning. We would freeze-frame our week and we would look back and we see things we don’t like. We’ve experienced things we don’t understand. At times, eternity has risen up in our hearts and we wonder where it’s all going, where it’s all headed, and what our part in it all is. Thank you for reminding us this morning there’s a time and a season for everything. Thank you for reminding us you make it all beautiful in your time. Therefore, give us grace to give you time. Give us grace to trust you In the meantime.
And Lord, as we hit the play button and we rush into a new week, we thank you we’re comforted by these thoughts that where we are is by God’s appointment kept in His keeping for this time. Lord, we thank you for these realities. We thank you that if our circumstances find us in God, we will find God in our circumstances. Amen.