GOD RULES SUPREMELY OVER THE UNIVERSE AND OUR LIVES
__________________________________________________
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” – Ecclesiastes 3:1 –
The wisdom Solomon is sharing with us in this passage is that God is sovereign over His creation and all created beings. His providential hand guides our lives through all times and seasons. We may believe we are in control… yet nothing is out of His control.
God is eternal. He dwells outside of time but is not restricted by it. Past, present and future are seen by Him as an eternal now. Humans are bound by temporal limitations. Our lives are ordered by time and time is ordered by God.
Jesus entered the constraints of time on earth to fulfill the will of God. His arrival was precise… a time pinpointed in human history before the foundation of the world.
God became incarnate. He set aside His glorified body and became one of His created beings. He never ceased to be God … yet He became a Man bound by time. The duration of Jesus’ life was exact…with a purpose of lasting significance. His span of time on earth was fully thought out from beginning to end in the mind of God.
So it is with us. Our Creator measures out our times on earth. Our lives are fully planned out in His mind before we are even conceived. No one is a mistake in His eyes. Every life has value… a gem to be treasured. And no one is sent into this world without a purpose.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11
God chose the time we would enter this world… and He has chosen the time we will return to Him. He has a purpose and plan for every living being on earth… as He has had for every person who has ever lived throughout human history.
Our Lord planned for each of us to be born at a precise moment in His timeline. We are meant to touch the lives of those He puts in our path. We would not have the same effectiveness had we been born a hundred years earlier… a year, or even a day earlier. He has a divine plan laid out for us… even though we may attempt to alter or control it ourselves.
God did not create us to sit on the sidelines of life… to idly let His plans for us pass by. He did not create us to pursue our own agendas… to go our own chosen ways… to blaze our own trails. God has a time set for us to live for Him… to have an impact for His kingdom.
“Who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” – Esther 4:14
What would have happened had the biblical greats been born at different times in history? Would they have had the same influence for God’s kingdom?
Was not Moses meant to lead the Israelites to freedom? Was not Esther meant to save the Jewish nation? Was not Paul meant to spread the hope of Jesus to the Gentiles? All stepped up in faith for their time on earth, following the will of God, as powerful forces for the kingdom.
Heroes and heroines of faith come from all walks of life. We may believe we are mere pinpoints of light in the universe… yet we are created to be rays of sun in our world for the time God has given us… to shine the light of Christ into the lives of people only we can reach.
It is true that God’s eternal plan will prevail whether or not He has our cooperation. Yet we dare not miss the opportunity and privilege of being a part of it, of playing a key role in His supreme plan... a role He has designed just for us.
“Jesus replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.’” – Acts 1:7
Our Creator God marks out time in His created world by seasons. Our lives are also marked by seasons. In our span of life, we travel through seasons from youth to old age… the spring, summer, fall and winter of our time on earth.
Our days are seasonal as well. We can have days of newness… new experiences, new opportunities, new joys. These are our spring days when all is filled with hope. We can have days when our lives are flowing in a pattern of peace. These are our summer days… times of comfort, sunshine and cheer… when nothing dims our faith and hope.
Our autumn days are times of change… not always welcome change. Trials and troubles come upon us like autumn frost that test our faith. Our winter days are bleak times when the cold winds and blizzards of adversity rage on with no end in sight… times when our faith may falter.
Yet all seasons are controlled by our loving God… seasons of the earth, seasons of our lives, seasons of our days. All are divinely ordained and orchestrated by Him. We were not made to comprehend all the mysteries of His ways. We are to rest in the promise that the hope of spring is ever on the horizon.
In every time and season of our lives, we place our total faith in the providence of God. For He is the One who commands the universe… the Almighty One who reigns paramount with omnipotence and absolute supremacy.
† Eternal Takeaway – Our times and seasons are governed by our sovereign God †
