I was reminded recently about the seasons of our life. Last Sunday, as a congregation, we prayed for two newborn babies struggling with life-threatening issues, and two older women who have devoted their lives to their LORD, 96 and 82, also struggling with health issues. The congregation that prayed spanned all the years in between.
We are each in differing seasons of life. Some of us are right where we want to be. Some of us are not. Some don’t particularly like where they are now, they want it to be different, something new or exciting; or, they want it to be what it used to be. A verse in Ecclesiastes 9:10 helped me through a particularly difficult season of life: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
That verse carried me through what some have described as a “dark night of the soul.” It was a time when I could not sense God’s presence at all. I did not hear His voice. The heavens felt like brass when I prayed. I had no friend nor family near me. I had left a ministry I loved and had nothing to take its place. I wondered what I had done wrong to be where I was at that point in time.
But I did what the verse in Ecclesiastes 9:10 commanded. When I saw a need, I tried to fill it. When I saw someone struggling, I spoke about the love and beauty of the LORD. I don’t think anyone knew what was going on in my own soul then—I felt that this was between the LORD and me. I somehow knew that if I remained faithful to “do what my hand found with all my might,” one day the dawn would break and that dark night would be over. And, of course, it did.
We may not be where we want to be at this moment – maybe yearning for something new and exciting or desperately wanting to go back to when things were different – but we can be assured that wherever we are, God is with us. We just need to do whatever our hand finds to do – with all our might!
