Do You Know What Time It Is

Ecc. 3: 1-11 NRSV

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

2 a time to be born, and a time to die; 

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; 

a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; 

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 

5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; 

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; 

a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; 

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

8 a time to love, and a time to hate; 

a time for war, and a time for peace. 

9 What gain have the workers from their toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. 11 He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

When we understand that “For everything there is a season,” and that “He has made everything suitable for its time,” then we can begin to grow in the season we are in. There are three movements here:

The Certainty of the Seasons (1-2)

The Diversity of the Seasons (3-8)

The Mystery of the Seasons (9-11)

While our life is a season, there are many seasons in our life. Our response is to trust God’s timing for the season he has us in. To embrace the season he has us in. To grow through the season, learning in that that present moment what God has for us. We hold to some things, we let of some things. We walk away, we stay. We speak, we get get quiet. We can’t move effectively unless we are listening for and watching God move in our lives.