LIVING THIS THING CALLED LIFE (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth.

Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

Ecclesiastes 11:3-4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

This is the third in a series about living this thing called life, a life that God has blessed us to live, a life He expects us to live within His principles and expectations. In Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11, we find some of those principles and expectations which so far has included living in generosity and investing our time, talent, and treasure in others. Today, we find the word of the Lord instructing us to go with the flow, to not stop living because of events in life we have no control over.

In other words, life happens and you often can’t do anything about it. To underscore this, we find our scripture verse providing us a few examples:

1. If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth.

Who has the ability to control the weather except for the Lord? And yet, we worry and fret all the time about whether or not it will rain, something we have absolutely no power over. The bottom line is that when the clouds are full, rain is going to fall.

Sometimes life is like this too. Circumstances come upon us that we have no control over. And so instead of sitting around and begrudging these things when they happen, perhaps we should try and see where God is working in the midst of those circumstances. When the rain is falling, He is often watering parts of His creation, bring life sustaining sustenance to plants, trees, and grass. There is a purpose there beyond what we might see and so too is it when other matters out of our control happen. We would be well served to step back and look at the bigger picture of what God is doing, coming to Him in prayer and asking His to reveal His purposes in the midst of what we’re experiencing.

Trust me, when we come before Him in prayer, He will answer those prayers and it’s in receiving His wisdom that we see His glory revealed.  

2. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Think about this example. You’re in a large forest filled with gigantic trees. One tree is older and its roots have begun to die, so much so that the tree is no longer able to remain anchored in the ground. And so the tree begins to lean and soon falls. Once that tree begins to fall who can change that? Who can do anything about where that tree falls and where it comes to rest? It will fall where it falls and rest where it lands. You can’t control that.

Sometimes matters of life can fall on us, matters that we couldn’t prevent or help. Perhaps we have a sudden expense we didn’t anticipate, like our car breaking down or an appliance failing at home. We need to get these things fixed but didn’t plan on having to fork out a lot of money. We find our budget impacted as we try and figure out where the money will come to get the items fixed. We had no control over the car or appliance breaking. It just happened and so we need to deal with the situation as it is, like the tree falling and lying in the forest.

Thanks be to God that we can always turn to Him in times of need, knowing He is always there for us, no matter what life might bring on us. Through all the uncertainties of life, through the myriad of things we have no control over, God is the one supreme certainty we can rely on.

Where would we be without Him as we live this thing called life?

3. Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

This verse doesn’t tell us to forego wisdom. That’s not the intent. Of course, there is a day more suited to plant than another, a day better for reaping than another. But we’re not to continue to put off doing things because the circumstances might not be ideal. If you’re waiting for things to be perfect by worldly standards, then you’re going to find yourself waiting awhile. You may need to plant although the winds may not be ideal. You may need to reap although the clouds threaten rain. Work still needs to get done.

In life, things aren’t always perfect either but I don’t need to tell you that, right? Yet, we often put off doing this or that because the surrounding elements aren’t quite what we would like them to be. More often or not, we’re using external things as excuses to mask our internal anxieties or laziness. It’s a lot easier to blame things outside of ourselves than it is to face the things inside that are holding us back from being all that the Lord wants us to be or to carry our His purposes.

Perhaps we should just seek the Lord and His counsel as to the right time to do what He wants us to do. For His timing is always perfect and so we will do what He wants us to do in perfect time when we follow His guidance and direction.

You get the point from all this right?

We don’t have control over many things as we live this thing called life but we know that God is in control of all things. All we need to do is turn to Him and seek His purposes and walk the paths He wants us to walk. He will always provide us discernment and never steer us wrong when we seek Him first.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com