Ecclesiastes 3:10-11–I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
 
We naturally live by defining moments and seasons of life, as either being “good” or “bad”.  Even as Christians who should believe God works all things for the good, many times we can struggle to consider what is good, when something is obviously not at the time…
But this is where faith is not only important, but crucial to have peace, joy, or at least hope when a season is obviously “bad”, and God has not made everything “beautiful”, yet!  This is why it is important to have an intimate relationship with God, that is led by walking with Him and knowing He is with us.  Because our definition of a thing being “beautiful” usually relates to what is good now, which we naturally want all the time!
 
Throughout the Bible, faith and trust in God was the  “anchor” to see God’s goodness through some “bad times” in biblical history.  Solomon echoes this by knowing that the life that we live before God, is busied by the “ups and downs” we all go through.  Though some things won’t be “beautiful” until heaven, the reality that God has put in the heart eternity, the Christian can live with eternal hope in this life and the next…
Yet still the question can emerge, “how is that helpful to me now, at a time where despair about a situation seems to be stronger than anything else?”  This question is exactly why faith has just as much to do with how we think, than just a conviction of the heart. Hebrews 11:3 says, “It is by faith we understand the universe was created by the word of God”.  So how we think about a situation, determines how we approach and deal with it, whether that is despairingly or in faith…
Solomon was considered to be the wisest man to ever live, yet Jesus is greater than Solomon.  His call for us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him, will gradually redefine our definition of good, which is usually defined through our selfishness.  God knows the more our mind is renewed, the more we will see the beauty of His ways, and praise His timing on how and why He does things.  If not in this life, we certainly will in heaven.
In His Love, Ld
In His Love, Ld