Everything Has Its Time

Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
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This passage explains how there is a time for every matter or purpose (v. 1). However, man does not control the world or time. God steers us with His hand. He is absolutely in control of all events. We seem helpless to control their arrival and departure. Solomon affirms that all of a person’s activities, both constructive and destructive, happen in their times. He starts off by saying that we do not have a choice about being born or about dying (vv. 2-8). We do not manage time but we do manage ourselves.

Have you ever heard someone say, “If only I had more time.” Actually, no one has any more time than anyone else. We each have 24 hours given to us every day. There is no way to stretch it and neither is there any way to shrink it. What we need to do is to manage what we do within the time we have.

Solomon closes his list of opposites by referring to life’s two basic emotions, love and hate with examples of war and peace (v. 8). Like the opposites of birth and death these are things that we have little or no control over. The fact that man is unable to control many of these events of life can be viewed as a blessing in disguise. Men who are continuously troubled by the events of life are more prone to lift up their eyes and search for the creator.

Application

God gives me time to do what He wants me to do and the fruit of my labor is a gift from Him.