Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

3 For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
²A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.¹²So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

¹⁴And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.

They say that timing is everything. I know this statement is true. In fact, it’s Truth, according to Scripture. Still, in this current season, I have wrestled with God’s timing for everything.

If you’ve been following our journey to the promised land, you know that I have much in common with the children of God. Like the Israelites, I’ve whined. I’ve complained. I’ve questioned. Yet, at the same time, I’ve also praised Him for the countless miracles He’s provided: Clouds by day. Fire by night. Water from a rock. Manna from heaven. Quail. Yet, every day, I seemed to forget how faithful He was the previous day!

It’s become a family joke when the kids reminisce about their childhood. “Mom, don’t you remember such and such?” I usually stare blankly into the abyss. “Um…no.” “Mom, seriously, remember so and so was there and we did such and such?” “Um…no.” It’s probably one of the reasons I loved to scrapbook when they were little. I tried to capture every moment in film and write a short description about the image so that I could remember.

In this time of dying, killing, tearing down, grieving, scattering stones, turning away, searching, throwing away, being quiet, hating, and declaring war, I needed to remember…

Let me be honest. I’ve struggled to see, feel and hear God in this wilderness season. As I poured out my heart, He remained silent. It perplexed me. Quite frankly, it pissed me off! So, as any strong willed little girl would do, I kept nagging Him. Like that persistent widow that annoyed the judge until he rendered justice on her behalf, I continued to ask, seek, and knock on heaven’s door.

No answer.

Just silence.

No visions.

No dreams.

No prophetic words.

Nothing.

He wasn’t talking to me!!! At least, that’s what I thought.

I was wrong.

He was simply communicating in a new way, in a new season.

Matthew 4:4

⁴But Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man is not to live on bread only. Man is to live by every word that God speaks.’”

And when my ears finally heard what He was saying, I remembered…. journal entries I’d written, blogs I’d written, words from others I’d written down, typed and saved on my computer. The words were filled with Spirit and Truth; Prayer & Scripture that were preparing me for this current season!

I had wrongly assumed that God’s apparent “silence” was an indication that He was mad at me. I thought (and others unknowingly validated): I must be in trouble. I must be sinning, and need to repent. I must be full of pride. I must be deceived. I must be failing to do what He said. I must be failing to be still. I must be failing to know that HE is God, and I am not. I must be failing to obey His will.

No. NO. NO!

The enemy is a liar. God never left me. He will never forsake me. He was with me in the wilderness all along. For heaven’s sake, His Spirit led me into the dang desert!

His perceived “silence” was actually an opportunity to remember….