Yesterday I was talking with a friend who was having a hard time dealing with one of the valleys (aka “down times”) he was going through.
We all go through them.
As my daughter and I were building a “Seasons of Change” Bible verse tree on her bedroom door (an idea from her daily devotional), one of the leaves had a verse on it from Ecclesiastes 3.
If you’ve never read or studied the chapter, it’s about dealing with life’s timing.
Life is a series of peaks and valleys.
Through faith, God gives you the tools needed to handle the valleys. It is often when you are in the valleys that you see God working.
A truly spiritual life is not free of hardship and difficulty. I have personally come to see that it is in the valleys where my testimony is most often being formed.
It is important we trust God for both the present and the future by devoting everything in our life to Him.
One of my favorite tools God has given us is the mental ability to define and assign meaning to every event that happens in our lives.
For example, death IS the same for everyone. The meaning we assign to death is NOT.
If I told you my dad died, you might be sad for me for a minute because you know I am sad, but you will not be sad for a lifetime. In a few days or weeks, you probably won’t ever think about the death of my dad again. That moment was a deep valley in my life, but not a deep valley at all in your life.
If your dad died, depending on how you view death, you might go into a deep valley for a much longer period of time.
Why the difference?
The meaning you assigned to my dad’s death was not the same as the meaning you assigned to your dad’s death. Yet in both cases, a dad died. The situation was the same. The meaning you decided to assign to it was not.
The meaning we assign to events in our lives is our choice and our choice alone. That means God has given all of us the opportunity to redefine how we define and process the events we go through in life. It is one of the many tools He has given us.
Many people walk lost in this world (those who do not trust that everything happens in God’s timing) spend their lives complaining, depressed, or in the belief that a dark cloud is following them.
I remind myself that when I start to believe it is a dark cloud, I have to take off the glasses I have allowed Satan to put on my eyes. When we are in the dark moments and only see them as dark, we let Satan have control. When we choose to see the light in those moments, we give control back to God.
When we have faith in God and understand everything happens in His timing, we find the power to let the negative things go away.
*** Ecclesiastes 3 ***
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.
14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
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