Online Bible - tangle.com

Online Bible - tangle.com: "Daily Devotional, February 1st

Posted to Ecclesiastes 3:1 on Jan 26, 2010 at 11:22 AM

Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--

“The right time?”

I’ve known believers in Jesus who struggled with guilt for saying “no” to taking on a new responsibility in a church or a parachurch organization. Many of them felt that by not agreeing to do more, they were failing to “walk by faith.” Yet they are all people who possess good reasons for carefully selecting their priorities. Some of them are moving from being single to married life, or from being a student to working.

In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, wisdom recognizes that everything has its own season—in human activities as in the realm of nature. There is “a time to search [for work, marriage, new friends] and a time to quit searching” (v.6). There comes a time in life when we should curtail certain commitments and funnel our energy into something else—putting aside what we did in the past. For instance, a mother shouldn’t feel guilty about spending her time nurturing her child and not having as much time to serve in church as she once did. It’s necessary that we experience these seasons of change.

Even though every activity has an appropriate occasion, only God can truly know what that occasion is (vv.9-11). It’s our responsibility to make the best and wisest decisions, and “whether [we] eat or drink, or whatever [we] do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). J. I. Packer wrote, “We must forsake the fallacy that faith is only demonstrated by what we are doing for God. Certainly, an active and growing faith will produce works in the life of a believer, but in reality, biblical faith demonstrates what God, in His power and grace, is doing for, in, and through the one who believes God.”

We walk by faith when we trust God to work in and through our lives—in all we do. —Poh Fang Chia, Our Daily Journey CLICK HERE to visit OurDailyJourney.org"