Claire shares on waiting and patience in regards to God's will, and the understanding that his timing is perfect, beyond our comprehension.
“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
This is something I’ve really been reflecting on recently, how God so perfectly orchestrates every detail of my life together and how nothing that happens to me is accidental. It is now, at 22 years of age, that I can see how God is constantly working in my life both through the good seasons but also through the bad, when I doubt that there could be any purpose in the ruins. I truly believe that every experience that I have had to date has shaped and moulded me into the person I am becoming. Though I am often quick to forget this truth (particularly during periods of trials and temptations), I cling to the hope that I will one day be able to look back on every season of my life and see how God had me exactly where I needed to be to lead me to the place I belong.
There is no doubt that life is full of challenges and trials and it’s not abnormal to question what purpose God can have in our struggles. But I do firmly believe, based both on personal experience and in Biblical truth, that God is working in those hardships. It is often in these times that we truly realise our dependence on God and the need that we have for him every day of our lives. As a result, we draw nearer to God and our relationship with Him flourishes so that we can grow to become more and more like Him. God brings these things into our life in his perfect timing so that we can be taught and consequently grow in knowledge and in faith. This verse highlights the importance of timing in God’s will. Just because something does not seem to be happening for you right now does not mean that it is beyond the realms of possibility. Instead, you have an all-knowing and all-loving God who knows what is best for you and will bring about these transitions at a time that is right. These times of waiting, of pain and of disappointment, if viewed correctly, can be times of real and beautiful transformation.
I also love the verse that follows later in chapter 3
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (v. 11).
I love this for two reasons. This verse does not insinuate that everything in this life is beautiful, because quite simply it’s not. Cancer is not beautiful. Anxiety is not beautiful. Death is not beautiful. But instead, this verse focuses on a much greater truth: “God has made everything beautiful for its own time.” God can take the seemingly (and the very real) bad things in our life and turn them round so that he can use them in the way he intends to, for our good and His glory. He is a God who can make beauty out of ashes. Secondly, the verse specifically says “people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Maybe the reason we fail to appreciate the beauty of God’s greater picture is because we are unable to see the finished product? This verse is a humble reminder to me that we are flawed human beings and our understanding is so limited in comparison to God’s full and comprehensive knowledge of this world and of our lives. He is an omniscient God, from beginning to the end, he knows it all.
Ultimately, we must not forget that no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, God remains sovereign. It is most often not when we are amidst the situation that we can see this, but rather when we look back upon this time of our lives (Perhaps, the hardest part is that we may never understand the purpose of our suffering during our earthly lives). But, verse 1 explicitly says “… a time for every matter under heaven” meaning under God’s providential control and omnipotence. So therefore, we must put our complete trust and faith in a God who always delivers on his promises and is always working for our good (Romans 8:28). God is intentional in his actions and he has a divine purpose for every one of us. My advice is to actively search for purpose in the everyday, both in the pain and in the joy, in the mundane and in the extraordinary, in the mountain highs and the deepest lows. Most importantly, seek God above all else in this world; and I pray that no matter where you are right now you will know that God is at work in your life.
By Claire Acheson.
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