Seasons of Life

            There is a popular Christian song that has the lyrics “...just as seasons were made for change, so our lives were made for years...” I’d like to take out the word “years:” and replace it with either “days” or “hours.” I cannot remember who the songwriter is at the moment, but when I first heard this song years ago, a familiar scripture came to mind-Ecclesiastes 3. Verses 1-8 read:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, 
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
    
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
    
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

            God may be outside of space and time, but He often deals with us inside of it. I’ve often thought of this scripture as God allowing us a chance to rest. Him saying, “It’s ok to take a break from this or that; you can pick it back up later,” or Him saying “Now’s not the right time; be patient son,” or even Him saying “Do it now, the season of harvest has come.”

            Today as I ponder this verse, this song, and a life that seems to change seasons even hourly at times, I am reminded of what God says in Philippians 4:11 “...I have learned to be content what ever the circumstances.” Weather winter, spring, fall or summer; whether joy, sadness, understanding, or confusion, I know God is still reigning supreme and He just wants me to have faith in that and to be satisfied in Him. In that same chapter God mentions “...a peace that surpasses all understanding...” May His peace that surpasses all understanding and every circumstance give me contentment in each, ever-changing season of life.  

Mark 1:29-31 NIV

            As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So He went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

            I’ve read this passage before but missed a major point. I always thought it was about the healing Jesus did in making her fever perish. That part is important, but I think there is something deeper. The scriptures tell us that as soon as the fever left that she began to wait on them. Her “disease” was healed and she went straight to work. There’s no doubt that what Jesus did here was nothing short of a miracle, but her reaction is a direct result of that miracle. Because He healed her, she decided to serve Him. Because He showed love to her, she would love Him back.

            This story is a pure example of what Christians are called to do daily. Jesus heals us, Jesus loves us: therefore, we serve Him, and we return love to Him. This is the difference in Christianity and many other religions; Christ first loved us and sacrificed for us “while we were still sinners.” He reached down to us before we even thought about looking up to Him. Christ’s love for us is what compels us to serve Him. As we are healed from our disease called “sin,” may we grow closer to God and serve Him in ever-increasing ways each day. Our daily question to God should be: “Thank you for forgiving me father, how may I serve You today.” If we set our minds on others and serving the Kingdom of God, amazing things will happen!

Falling In Love

“The more I seek You, the more I find You;
The more I find You, the more I love You”
-Lyrics to “The More I Seek You” by Kari Jobe

God wants you. The creator of the universe wants you. The God of all space and time wants you. He wants to spend time with you, He wants to pour into your life, He wants to reveal His love to you in an ever-increasing way; however, you have to seek Him.

God tells us that we will find Him when we seek Him with all of our heart.  (Jeremiah 29:13) He wants us to give our all to Him just like Jesus did when He gave His all to us by dying for us. God says that there is great reward for those who seek Him. (Hebrew 11:6)  As Kari Jobe expresses in her song, the more we seek and find God, the more we love Him. I think that happens because we realize more and more how much God loves us.

Seeking God is the hardest thing you will do. Time is very valuable and with a world that seems to spin faster and faster every day, it can be difficult to give God adequate time. Take small steps; start out by spending a minute in His presence everyday.  A minute will turn into two minutes and two to three and three to four and so on. “The more we seek Him... the more we love Him.” The more we love Him, the more time we will want to spend with Him.

Jason Gray wrote in one of his songs: “It’s more like falling in love, than something to believe in. More like loosing my heart, than giving my allegiance.” If we intentionally seek God, there is a reward. That reward is not what we would necessarily expect, but it is falling in love with the one who first loved us.

If Christmas Never Came

“I think of God,
His son not sparing,
Sent Him to die,
I scarce can take it in;
on the cross, my burden,
gladly bearing, He bled and died
to take away my sin!
Then sings my soul
My Savior, God, to Thee
How great thou art,
How great thou art!”

-Lyrics to “How Great Thou Art” written by Carl Gustav Boberg

Can you imagine? If He didn’t come, if He didn’t die, if He wasn’t raised, if He didn’t suffer; can you imagine if God wasn’t so generous with His Son? David Phelps once sang in one of his songs “There’d be no hope for me, that’s just how it would be, if Christmas never came.”

But praise God He did. Because of Him coming to earth, dying, rising, and defeating death, we can have “peace that surpasses all understanding.” (Philippians 4). Praise God we will never have to know what it would be like if Jesus didn’t come and generously give us everything He had.

We serve a God who wants us to have victory in our everyday life. He says, “Today is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6). The decisions we make and the way we respond to situations is completely under our control. Don’t let the negative of today get you out of whack. Don’t let the devil have the foothold in your life today. Don’t live one day as if Christmas never came.

Christmas did come; God took our suffering and pain, put it on Jesus and in exchange gave us joy, true joy! Believe today and receive the gift of joy God wants to give you. How great Thou truly art God, how great Thou art! Joy abounds in my soul! 

God’s Only Worried About Today

Exhausted, overloaded, restless, depressed. These are all words that come to mind when I think about worrying. Worrying is one things that God simply tells us not to do. Jesus says, “Do not worry” in Matthew chapter 6.

When I first read that, I thought, “yea God, that’s easy for you to say, you’re in Heaven, what’s there to worry about,” but then I went further in the chapter. He gives reason for it. He basically says I can’t change anything, so why worry. He tells us that we are more valuable than the birds and He takes care of them; therefore He’s going to take care of us. He also tells us that worrying changes absolutely nothing. So why spend the energy?

In Lamentations God promises to give us “strength for the day.” What a wonderful thought that is; God only wants us to be concerned about today and enjoy what He’s got planned for today. He’s got yesterday and tomorrow taken care of. In fact, the bible says that God is outside of time as we find in 2 Peter 3:8: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Not only is God outside of time, but He also created it. Not only does God tell us not to worry, but He also tells us why. Not only does God take care of the sparrows, but He also takes care of me. Those facts draw me to believe that there is absolutely nothing to worry about; my mighty, loving God has got me in the shelter of His wings.

One of my favorite songwriters of our time, Mrs. Gloria Gaither once mentioned in a performance, "I've come to believe that all that God puts in our lives, good and bad, joy and pain, successes and failures, sometimes horrible failures, He puts there to crowd us closer to Him."

As I think upon that statement, I think about the grace and love of my forgiving God; He uses my failures to draw me closer to Him. He uses my failures to teach me wisdom. He uses my failures to reveal to me how much I need Him. He uses my failures to show me how much He loves me.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came to heal those who were sick. "Those who are healthy don't need a physician," Jesus said, "but those who are sick do." God allows us to fail him, get off course, and sometimes "take the long road home" so that we will realize how much we need Him.

It may not be very comfortable at the moment to realize how much of a failure you really are without God, it may be humbling; but our God promises to "never leave or forsake us" and promises "plans to prosper you; to give you hope and a future." So when you fall, don't worry, God's going to pick you up and bring you even closer to Him.