For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

This verse has been sticking with me a lot as of late.  For more reasons than I could even begin to explain really.  As I sit here and think over a lot of my life’s happenings, this verse literally applies to each and every one of them.  Everything has its time. Everything has its season.  Everything.  God controls it all.  Nothing is in vein. Nothing is just by chance.  And as I meditate on this verse and reflect on all the words that it’s made up of, He becomes more real, more evident, and my faith begins to increase. I begin to realize in a deeper and more meaningful way that he is right here with me, with us all, governing over everything, ruling over it all.  Orchestrating perfectly with a purpose. His purpose.

This verse brings me peace.  Even if I haven’t a clue as to why something happened or what possibly the purpose or reason could be in something.  This whole chapter in Ecclesiastes tells me that there is no such thing as coincidence.  There is no such thing as chance.  But in turn, there is order. There is purpose.  There is reason. And he is sovereign. 

He is real.  I know this because even in the midst of total devastation and disaster I can still feel his presence.  I can feel a lasting peace that sort of just hovers over the circumstance or situation.  A reassuring comfort letting me know that he is who he says he is and that no matter what, in the end all things will work for his good and his glory.  I won’t lie, in these very circumstances and situations I still feel anxiety, stress, fear, doubt, frustration, guilt; you name it.  Every awful, scary feeling or thought, I have thought it, I have felt it.  I still feel them. But, I pray through them, and just like everything that isn’t true or real, they slowly start to diminish and his truth is revealed.  His peace begins to surpass it all. 

I know that he is real simply through his provision.  He provides. He provides. He provides. I will never be able to say that enough.  Whether it be through finances, through friendships (both new and old), peace, and grace, he has provided for me countless amounts of time.  In these past few weeks alone, God has provided in such amazing and astonishing ways. 

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1: 6-8

Through the fire we are refined.  Therefore its having gone through these devastations, these trials, these circumstances that I am found to be even more thankful.  Though these times are hard, still are hard, I will continue to praise him through it all.  I will praise him because he is in total control.  He knows the purpose and reason in everything.  I will trust in him. I will choose to put my faith in him and not in my worries or fears. In him alone.