If you have been alive for any length of time, you are well aware that life is filled with both ups and downs. Both are bound to come, and often times there is nothing we can do about it. But I encourage you, when things are good, take time to appreciate what God has given you and how he has provided for you. Use that time to encourage others, to help them and to pray for them, because we’ll never know when our circumstances will change. God doesn’t always give us a “heads up” when calamity is around the corner. So, we should enjoy the good times and expect that there will be bad times, because no one knows their future. Solomon explains it this way in Ecclesiastes 7 verse 14:
“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.”
I’ve said it before and I still hold to the same belief that any control we think we have over our lives is an illusion. God giveth and he taketh away. It doesn’t matter how righteous you think you are, it rains on the just and the unjust alike. Consider Job. I would dare to say that he was more righteous than most anyone on our planet today, yet he faced one of the worst calamities in the Bible. Like Job, we don’t know our future. But also like Job, we should trust God with our future. So I encourage you to hold loosely the control you think you have over your life, because just as Solomon explains, “a man cannot discover anything about his future.”
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Ecclesiastes reminds us that “when times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.” We don't know our future. Life can change on a dime. So, I encourage you to enjoy what God has given you now. Praise him for his provision now. Thank him for his protection now. Because tomorrow, things could change. If they do, remember to cling to the one who is truly in control. Cling to God.
