Ecclesiates 3:1-8
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’s timing and purpose is amazing. There is truly a season for everything. And God is consistent and harmonious with all of His Creation. He is the Author and Perfector of life! Just as He puts the agricultural and natural life cycles into being, we, too, go through the same cycles in our spiritual lives- both personally, and corporately. The Holy Spirit tills the soil in our hearts. Seeds of truth are sown. Then there is a long summer waiting period of learning and preparation, during which the ground is watered frequently and the sun
shines warmly. This is the season we don’t yet see fruit, but in time, we eventually do. (Just like a teenager rests and eats during growth spurts, so does our spirit.) Then several weeks later, signs of life emerge from the ground. And by late fall, the crop is ripe and ready for harvest.
But there is one more piece of the agricultural cycle that occurs. As a sown seed lies buried in the soil, it must ‘die,’ in a sense, before new life (and more seeds) can spring forth from it.
I love how God’s Word uses the natural aspects of this life to explain the supernatural. Let’s listen to the words of Jesus- a message he gave to his disciples, Philip and Andrew.
John 12:24 (The Message)
“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.”
Jesus died, was buried and then came back to life.Our own salvation follows the same cycle. Our old seed (self) dies, is buried with Christ and we are given new life!
Galatians 2:20
‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’
I Peter 1:23
‘For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.’
The life starts to take on the appearance and function of the kind it came from. As the new life grows up, it begins to bear fruit. If we are born of the Spirit, we will produce this fruit:
Galatians 5:22
‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’
And what function do we now have in this new life? To know Christ and to make Him known! To do good works in the Name of Christ! To share the Gospel of hope, eternal life and salvation to a dying world. To love others like Jesus loves us.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
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