“There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die…”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 NIV)
So far (as of 9:15 a.m. this morning) I have lived out “There is a time to be born and a time to die.” I was outside walking and found one of our pet rabbits dead in her cage. There didn’t seem to be any damage to the cage or the rabbit, so we are assuming this 8-9 year old bunny just died of “old age.” Her companion bunny wouldn’t fill us in on what happened. So we buried the dead rabbit and came in to resume our day.
Then I received a text from my friend to show off her newest baby sheep. This baby came a couple of weeks after a pair of twins that are So Stinking Cute! This afternoon I took my kids over to hang out with the sheep for a few minutes. It was a beautiful day with sweet memories. Today was “a time to be born and a time to die.”
Tonight I was in a Bible study and we were working our way through the first part of Ephesians 5. I realized that the “working out of our salvation” is a place where we deal with death and life. There are times in our faith walk where things have to die – including places within us that believe deceptive voices, places that harbor bitterness or unforgiveness or anger, places that yield to temptation, etc.. In Ephesians 5:1 Paul tells us to, “Be imitators of God in everything you do…” (TPT) If I’m honest with myself I have to admit that not 100% of me is truly imitating God in every moment. He calls us to, “continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ….” (Ephesians 5:2 TPT). This process of surrendering is an ongoing, day by day, over-and-over type of dying to self and dying to things that want to hold us captive when God wants us to be free. After all, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
But when we let God clean out the darkness and death within us, he is able to grow a whole new crop of Abundant Life within us. When we get rid of sexual immorality, obscenity and foolish talk and joking, greed, and other deeds of darkness that Paul writes about, we make room for the things that please God. We have more space for the fruit of the light – goodness, righteousness, truth, thankfulness, and Holy Spirit.
Easier said than done? Probably. But what if letting God kill off the dead and dying within you allows him to then cultivate the fullness of Jesus Christ within you? What if that surrender means more joy? More peace? More love? More hope?
Our natural life and our spiritual life both show the reality that there is a time to be born and a time to die.
Perfect-timing God,
Thank you for all our many gifts and blessings, including that you have created everything perfect for its time. Thank you for your Spirit that calls us to die to self and live for you – and that you guide us through that process. Help us to work out our salvation – to cultivate it and actively pursue spiritual maturity as we use caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid things that offend you. Thank you that you strengthen, energize, and create within us the longing to fulfill your purposes within us. Help us to walk in love and to be free because Jesus has set us free. In his name we pray, Amen.
“….continue to work out your salvation [that is, cultivate it, bring it to full effect, actively pursue spiritual maturity] with awe-inspired fear and trembling [using serious caution and critical self-evaluation to avoid anything that might offend God or discredit the name of Christ]. For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12 AMP)
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36 NIV)
“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
“But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…” (Ephesians 5:1-18 NIV)