Our Seasons!

(Ecclesiastes 3:4) “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”

One if the hardest virtues to master would have to be self-control. We understand that it is impossible to master in the flesh as we are slaves to sin as a dead man. The flesh is a body of death and therefore if we continue to look to it for victory we will continue to fail. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and must be exercise by and through the Spirit. We must embrace Christ if we are to achieve self-control with any consistency.

I am weak in this area of my life but then again there is room for vast improvement in many areas. To fall in love with Jesus so that my love for Him would be sweeter than the day before should be a given and yet we are emotional beings with so many pressing issues that look to deprive us of our entitlement, which is to love the Lord our God with all our minds, souls and strength.

We can measure our commitment to this truth and this is how we know where we stand in this regard; “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, "Great is the LORD!" (Psalm 40:16): - Are we continually thankful for what we have received? Is there a smile on our face and a spring in our step? All the great men of God had their seasons when it came to the joy of the Lord, look at Jeremiah the prophet and how he felt abandoned, not that God would ever forsake one of His own; “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; " (Lamentations 3:1-8): - He was a man full of depression and yet he realized that his hope was to be found in no one else, but the Lord; “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: (Lamentations 3:22-41)

So much of our life and the sorrow of it is because of so many bad choices and yet our great saviour, the Lord Jesus is just a cry away. Call we must and we must now always learn to rest in His finished work. There is nothing or no one He hasn’t conquered! And yet we also understand that there is a time for all emotions to play their part in our lives; “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” (Ecclesiastes 3:4): - Nevertheless through it all we must as John Piper says always looking for joy in the Lord, regardless of our current circumstance. God give us the insight to embrace His love with all we have regardless of our current emotional state.

Signing off

Tyrone