Providence

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Thomas Chisolm

Read

If you're following along, we've come to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Read the first 8 verses. Do you see a pattern here? Each verse is arranged in what is called a couplet. Read it over a few times, then jot down a label for each couplet.

Think

Though your experience may argue the opposite, life is not a series of random events. There are things that we can expect out of life, and we have some of them listed right here. But Solomon goes a step further by suggesting that these things are appointed for us. Birth and death, war and peace, pain and healing, all have their time and purpose in our lives.

Thinking back to some of the hard things you've experienced, can you find the purpose in them? Whatever position you take on the wars you've seen in your lifetime, have you stopped and considered that there may be a Divine Providence at work there, and what in the world God might be doing? Do you take the time to embrace those you love when you have the chance? Do you celebrate freely, rejoicing with those who are blessed, and do you take the time to feel the loss of loved ones, mourning with those who mourn?

All of these things are appointed for us under heaven, and there is a time and purpose for everything.

What Solomon is teaching us in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is that all of life unfolds under the appointment of providence. Birth and death, sowing and harvest, joys and sorrows, acquiring and losing, speech and silence, war and peace--everything has its appointed time from God. He is sovereign, but He is always faithful.

David Jeremiah, Searching for Heaven on Earth

Do

Take some time to think about events in your life that you can be thankful for. Most are easy, but you probably have a few that are on the surface only and completely negative. Focus on them for a moment. Ask yourself this question: "If God is always at work in my life (and He is), what in the world was He doing there?"

Pray

Thank God for His providence and care in your life, and ask Him to help you understand those things that seem only bad.