APR 23

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Memorise 1 Thessalonians 5:18
“A time to be born, and a time to die…”

From verses 1-8 Solomon launches into a poetic listing of 28 activities and events that man has no control over. They are listed as 14 pairs of contrasts. The contrasts here serve to describe the full gamut of our human experience: of life and death, joy and sadness, success and failures, positives and negatives. All things have their own time and purpose, be they good or bad.

This passage is probably one of the more well-known passages in the Bible – and is one that even non-believers quote from. It is a list that everyone under the sun can easily identify with. Anyone who has experienced life would have witnessed the changing seasons of time, and have had good times and bad experiences in life. Everyone knows that these are the realities of human life, and they are the things that we will certainly have to face as we journey through our time here on earth. Indeed the human life is a rich and a full experience. There are so many things to do in life, and so little time to experience them all. What Solomon is saying here is that as we experience life here on Earth, realise that God is sovereignly in control of all these ‘times’, and whether good or bad, they will all happen as God intends them to. Just as we have no control over the natural universe, we also have no control over even our own lives. Yet even as all these events happen as they do, they are not in contradiction to each other. All things come to pass in complete and perfect unity according to the plan of God. We may not ever be able to fully comprehend God’s mysterious workings but we can rest assured that God is in control, and everything happens in its time, for its purpose.

Dear teen, are you able to see God’s hand in every aspect of your life? Use these verses as a kind of checklist to see how God has purposed every event in your life. In the midst of all these varied experiences, are we able to thank God for each and everything that happens? We rejoice and thank God when we see births, times of healing; we enjoy the times of laughter, dancing, embracing. But how about when the sorrows of death overwhelm us, or when the ravages of war affect us, or when we are hated for no fault of our own? Are we still able to thank God?

Thought: When I am angry with life, who am I actually angry with?
Prayer: Lord, help me to see Your sovereign hand in all things, and in everything, always be able to give thanks.