Surviving the Seasons of Our Lives

Ecclesiastes 7:14 Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life. (NLT)

God is involved in all of the seasons of our lives. In our brightest memories and our darkest hours, God remains on the throne. Too often in our Christian walks we can forget this simple truism. We can lose sight of God in our own circumstances. There is a popular Christianism that says if you feel further away from God today, I can guarantee it was you who moved. God does not move; He does not change:

"I am the L ord , and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you," says the L ord of Heaven's Armies. "But you ask, 'How can we return when we have never gone away?' Malachi 3: 6-7 (NLT)

Look at what God is saying through His prophet. God made a covenant with Israel and despite how they have always scorned His decrees and were disobedient; He is willing return to them if they would just return to Him. The same goes for us today. The Lord does not change. Despite how many times we can falter and fall away God is still right where we left Him. Waiting for us to simply come back. The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a portrait of us returning to our Father, God Almighty. When the son chooses to come home, humbled by the world and choices he made in it, he does not face rebuke or reproach from the Father:

"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. Luke 15: 22-24

God has a robe of His righteousness to cover you and the sins you had committed, which separated you from Him. He has a ring for you to signify to whom you belong. He has sandals for your feet to provide the comfort we so desperately seek in this life. But we have to be willing to come home. We have to be willing to turn around and go back where we left God.

Our key verse today provides some reminders to us about how we should live our lives to avoid the emotional swings in our walk that can lead us astray. Within this one verse are three fundamental truths for us to keep close to our hearts. The first truth is that we should enjoy our prosperity while we can. The New International Version says it even clearer "When times are good, be happy;" Well, that sounds easy enough but if we really think about it; it is a lot more difficult than we realize. We live in a society that encourages constant worry. The enemy rules the world and he constantly reinforces a mindset of anxiety. Wars everywhere. Famine and disease. A crippled economy. What are the things that we were brought up believing? You must worry about the unknown future. You must worry about your retirement. Worry about the new swine flu. Worry about the country. Worry about the next election. Do you remember Y2K? How about the avian flu?

Now, this is not to say that we should live haphazard lives but rather to illustrate that the world does not promote this very simple concept. When things are going good, we should be happy. How many people do you know that are prosperous yet miserable? The world promotes greed and the true nature of greed is that it is never satisfied. Realize the prosperity that is written about here is not merely financial in nature. You can be prosperous and not be rich. You can be prosperous in the blessings of God. You can have a healthy family, attend a good church with a God-fearing Pastor, and hold a good job in a bad economy. These are all prosperity. Yet somehow we fail to count them correctly. We fail to be properly thankful to God for the blessings He has given us. Paul writes about this in Romans:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1: 21

And our thinking can also become futile. This is the enemy setting us up for when things may not be as prosperous. Maybe we lose our job. Maybe one of our kids becomes ill or we receive a bad report from the doctor ourselves. Maybe a calamity shakes our church. Then the very thing we failed to acknowledge as a blessing from God when we had it becomes something for us to shake our fist to God about. Think about that for a minute. For years we have a good job and healthy kids and barely notice it enough to thank God for it. Then as soon as something goes wrong, we can turn to God in anger. Why? Because the world sells us on the notion that prosperity means financial wealth. We are conditioned to believe that we should value the temporal riches of this world. But here is Jesus teaching about this:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6: 19-21

Where is our heart today? What do we value? Have we done a proper assessment of all the blessings God has given us and if so; are we happy in our prosperity? The key verse is simplistic because it need not be difficult. We tend to make things harder than they need to be. If we would just appreciate what God does provide for us, then we would find ourselves happier in that prosperity as a result.

The Book of Job tells a story of a man who was blessed by God. He had prospered under God as well in every sense of the word. He was well-to-do, as well as blessed in terms of finances, family and health. When God turns to Satan and asks him to consider Job, what was the first thing the devil assumed would break him?

"Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." Job 1: 9-11

Stretch out your hand and strike everything he has. That is how the devil thinks. That is the prosperity he sells through the world system. Satan assumed that if God would simply remove the material blessings Job had, that Job would curse God. How many of us would react in such a manner? How many already have? So many people will leave the faith or their church when things go bad materially in their lives. Job would see all of his material worth removed and he would lose his children as well. His response?

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job 1: 20-21

It is easy to worship God on the mountaintop and even then we can forget. But in the valley when all seems against us and unfair that is when worship can become difficult. Here Job loses all of his children and wealth and his response acknowledges the second truth from our key verse today. When hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Job's wife would mock Job and suggest that he curse God and die. Job's response should be part of our prayer life:

He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. Job 2: 10

It is vogue to consider all the bad times in our lives as an attack from the enemy. Now, the enemy may surely be attacking; God allowed the enemy to afflict Job. But we can fall into the trap of removing God and the role He may have in our circumstances as well. Why would God allow such times in our lives? For His glory. If everything in our lives were mountaintops then we would start to believe that we had something to do with it. Let's be real. When do we rely upon God more? It is about God being strong in our lives; not ourselves. The Apostle Paul would suffer from a messenger from Satan what he referred to as a thorn in his flesh. Many have tried to postulate what that thorn may be. Perhaps he suffered from a physical ailment. Perhaps he suffered from the haunting memories of when he persecuted the church. I think that God specifically left the identity of the thorn unknown as a message to us all. The thorn is not nearly as relevant as our reaction to it. Here was Paul's reaction:

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians 12: 7-10

Paul does not discuss what the thorn is. But he has ascertained why God has allowed it. He was given great revelation. He has seen things that no man should have been allowed to see. He understands that this could lead to great conceit; great pride. Thus the Lord allowed the thorn to remind him of whom he relies. It is through weakness that the power of Christ rests upon him.

The same principle works in us today. When we face weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties we need to be less concerned with what they are as we should be with who God is in relation to them. Who God is in our lives. It is not about our strength but the power of Christ in us. When that power is manifest in us, we can face any challenge and overcome it. When we are too busy asking "why me" we lose sight of "why God." He has a reason for refining us always:

This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' " Zechariah 13: 9

Refining is the process of removing impurities from metals, such as silver. The Lord is likewise seeking to remove the impurities within us. That is not easily achieved during times of prosperity but rather in the valley when we truly seek God. When we do, we will realize the third truth from our key verse nothing in this life is certain.

We can become too enamored with the world and the empty promises it makes. It is the instability of the world that leads to the seasons we must navigate. God will always use everything for His glory and our good. We need to be happy when times are good. God did not mean for us to live our lives in sackcloth and ashes. If we are happy when God blesses us it will lead us to stand firm when hard times strike. To see the hand of God in every situation in our life. To greatly rejoice despite our circumstances:

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1Peter 1: 6-7

The seasons will come and go. Whatever you are going through you are only going through. David only walks through the valley of the shadow of death. We need to be happy in the prosperity God has blessed us with, stand firm during the refining trials and remember that in this life nothing is certain. Only beyond this life do we find certainty. In God, His Word, and the eternal life He has so graciously allowed us to partake of.

Reverend Anthony Wade June 29, 2010