A Time for Everything

In Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 it says,
"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." chapter 3 verse 11

In my notes it states that:
Humans have little or no control over times and changes.  The eternal God sovereignly determines all of life's activities. A time means divinely appointed. Verse 11 is summarizing the chapter in saying, God's beautiful but tantalizing world is too big for us, yet its satisfactions are too small.  Since we were made for eternity, the things of time cannot fully and permanently satisfy. God's people find meaning in life when they cheerfully accept it from the hand of God.

I just read a friend's blog where she was talking about seasons and how pruning is painful and sometimes you just want to rest in comfort or happiness, but different seasons bring different emotions/situations/changes.  I just attended Campus Harvest 2011 where one of the speakers, Lynette Lewis, stated that, "When we are pruned by God, He takes things, mind sets, beliefs, people, idols and cuts them out of our lives but when that thing is cut off, multiple shoots of new growth come out."

Are you trusting in God's divine timing? Are you trusting Him through this season? Are you allowing Him to transform you and change you?  Do you believe that you were made for eternity and that this earth will never satisfy your heavenly longings?

At Campus Harvest, the theme was Transformed and they used the visual of a butterfly.  No matter what season you're in, know that if you allow Christ to transform you, that butterfly can never go back into the cocoon.  Once you allow Christ to be the Lord of your life, you'll never be the same.