A time to...
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]So a new term is almost here: more than 8.5 million children are due to swap the buckets, spades and tablets for text books and… erm, more tablets… next week.For some grown-ups, this means cheaper holiday prices – woo-hoo! For some, it’s back into the routine of making packed lunches, triumphantly finding missing shoes and suffering tired tantrums post four o’clock. For others, it’s a sad goodbye to the easier commute to work.But for everyone, the daylight hours will be that bit shorter, there’ll be a chill in the air in the morning, The X-factor will be on the box on a Saturday night and the shops will sneak in the Christmas decorations.Love it or hate it, our time in this life is marked by different seasons. We’re ok with that – most of the time. But why do we sometimes struggle when God says it’s time for a different season in our lives?When God starts shaking our roots from an established comfort zone in which we are well and truly planted it can be exciting – it can also be a truly painful season. We don’t always want to be shaken! We can cry, we can plead, we can strop, we can try our best to control things.In Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, God teaches us about seasons:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, a time to dance;…”
(You can read it all in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8).Then there is a beautiful verse of hope further down the passage: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3: 11The seasons God calls us through are all beautiful, no matter how painful, because “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”. Romans 8:28So if God is calling you into a new season, you can trust in His goodness and His wonderful purpose as He brings about His glory.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]