A Time For Everything

For a while now, I have been slowly praying my way through the book "Praying the Bible - Praying God's Word Out Loud for Spiritual Breakthrough" by Wesley & Stacey Campbell. They've taken scripture and put it into a book form as written prayers. The beginning of each chapter includes an introduction to the type of scripture and some suggestions on how to pray those scriptures. It has been a time of renewal and recentering on the Lord as I pray these scriptures.

Last week I began the chapter on Wisdom. The first prayer is titled, "A Time for Everything". Honestly, as I read each line I had a tear falling down. Just as fast as the tears came, I also felt a sense of joy and comfort. It was kind of odd, but it got me thinking that sometimes it's not either/or, it's both/and. Take a moment to read this scripture and listen to the Holy Spirit.

---

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven:

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,

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.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;

yet they cannot fathom what God has done

from beginning to end.

ECCLESIASTES 3:1-8, 11 (NIV)

---

As you read that, or reread that, what sticks out to you? Did the Holy Spirit reveal anything to you? I have reread this a few times and each time something new sticks out to me. In fact, I think there could be a blog post or entire sermon series on each line. I'm not going to try to do that here, but I would like to share a few of my thoughts.

There's so many examples in my own life I could use here. The one I will use is what I have been going through recently. For almost two months I dealt with this virus that kept me from my normal routine. In fact, there were many days I just had to do basically nothing. That is not like me. I get passionate about a lot of things, and spend a lot of time doing or thinking about how I'm going to do things. A lot of the time that's great. It's a lot of ministry stuff that gets me passionate. However, even in ministry there needs to be balance.

A few people in my life sensed that God was going to use this time to teach me something. They encouraged me to really rest and reset. Out of pure exhaustion and necessity that is exactly what I did. Reading through my journals over the past few years, there has been a prevailing theme of rest. God has been nudging me to rest over and over. While I have made significant improvements and have been creating boundaries and times for rest in my life, this season has taught me that balance is a necessity.

It's been about a week now that I feel that I have improved enough to consider myself well. My passionate about everything self wants to do all the things, but my Holy Spirit guided self is telling me I still need a lot of rest built into my schedule. There is a time for everything, and I believe the Holy Spirit will guide us in that if we let Him.

What did the Holy Spirit reveal to you? Is there something in your life that needs more balance? Is there something in your life that needs to die, to give birth to something else? Have you given enough time to mourn something, or is it time to start dancing again? Do you need to let something go, or pick it back up? Is it time to be quiet about something, or is it time to speak up?

If you are still unsure what the Holy Spirit is trying to say, take some time to pray these verses aloud. Then be still and listen. The words or thoughts from the Holy Spirit will bring you peace and comfort as they guide you.