Be An Agent Of Change, Not A Victim-Part -1 Series

A Time for Change- Ecclesiastes 3:1-17

“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,” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

Today, we live in a world of rapid change. The evidence of change is all around us: Spring becomes summer. Summer becomes fall. Fall becomes winter. Winter becomes spring. The young become aged and the new becomes old and so on and so forth.

In the book of Daniel, we discover two very interesting predictions about the changes.”God changes times and seasons; (Daniel 2:20) the most powerful realities on earth are time and seasons and the most predictable truth on Earth is Change. Everything in Creation God design to experience natural change, nothing remains the same.

Beyond doubt there will be a massive change in 2014. There will be political, legal, social, cultural, ideological, moral, religious, scientific, technological, spiritual, climatic and environmental changes will occur in every Nations. Change is the greatest Challenge of our time. However, God does not Change. One thing is certain, the Scriptures make a distinction between the “temporal” and the “Eternal.” Paul says that the things that are seen are “temporal” but the things not seen are “eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). “Time” clearly does not relate to God and man in the same way. In describing God, the psalmist declares: “. . . from everlasting to everlasting, you are God . . .” (Psa. 90:2). Eternity is endless, but time is measured by a “beginning” and an “end.” Bible says " To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: “(Ecclesiastes 3:1) these words are words for every person, in every place, in every circumstance.

The two words here--season and time--imply duration and a point in time. Because everything has a season, nothing (at least on earth) lasts forever. God has appointed a "season" for everything. Seasons have beginnings and endings. They last, but not too long. In the life cycle there is a season for conception and growth, a season for childhood and youth, a season for middle age and a season for old age, followed by death. It's all quite natural; it's all ordained by God. The word translated "time" means "a point in time." Within any give season, there is a point in time in which God has ordained everything to happen. So season means a period of time and time means a point in time. Every activity of mankind has a proper time and a predetermined duration. Our lives will be a lot less stressful if we recognize that the omniscient hand of God has appointed a time when things are to be done, and He has a predetermined duration for those things to last. God has appointed the times and seasons, the events of our lives, the happy and the sad, the easy and the difficult. On one hand this can bring worry, but on the other hand, it should bring you hope because we know that God is in control.

Why does Solomon say a time to every purpose? The answer is found in verse 11: "He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time." When we commit our times and seasons to God, at the appropriate point in time, God will make everything to fulfill the purpose fit into the season of our life. The word translated "beautiful" doesn't mean "lovely" or "pretty." It means “mature” "fitting," "appropriate" or "proper." There is a fitting point in time that God has determined something should happen. Accordingly, God will never be late and He'll never be early. Furthermore, He knows the proper duration for that event. He never holds it over too long or cuts it off too short. He knows exactly the number of days He's given to you, and nobody can shorten those days; nobody can lengthen them either. Our times and seasons are in God's hand. And what we entrust to God's hand, God makes "proper" in its time.

So what does that mean--God makes everything fitting or proper in its own time? Consider the next verse Ecclesiastes 3:2 as an example: "A time to be born, and a time to die." Is it possible that God can make even death beautiful in its time? He can. At the proper time, God makes death fitting. He makes it appropriate. He makes it proper. There is a time for us to be born--a day in which God determines we will be born--and there's also a day in which God determines that our life on this side of the grave will end. Whether God chooses to take us to Himself through the blessing of death or the blessed hope, in God's plan we end up being with Him forever. The day when we die is simply another day to commit to a loving and omniscient God. The day of our death is, in His hands, every bit as wonderful as the day of our birth. When you live and die in the knowledge of God's eternal plan, you live and die with this confidence--God makes all things beautiful in its time.