Seasons of the Calendar

Psalm 3:5 I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.

In a period of only three nights, I have not slept from worry in a brutal battle of anxiety and insomnia, slept soundly awoken by the Lord and drawn to his Word, and this morning deep sleep then drawn by him to the Psalms and the book of Job reading about sleep patterns. I love how God works, the intimacy of his revelations of himself to us, of how we read in his Word the history of those before us with the same struggles and victories. We prayed before bed last night a primary prayer for good sleep, and God granted our request.

Job was in the midst of the most detailed recording of spiritual warfare that is given to us. Job was the one God has used in history to encourage anyone who suffers; to anyone who needs to see how real faith is when the time gets real hard. It is unimaginable the suffering of Job; the anxieties of Job, of how the misery did not kill him, of how he simply did not die from a broken heart. These anxieties kept Job awake, likely a many of a restless night. Job 7:3 So I have been allotted months of futility, And wearisome nights have been appointed to me. 4 When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, And the night be ended?’ For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. King David spent a season in fear for his life from his own family and others that sought to kill him. He spent a season of his life on the run, hiding in caves in the desert. He too understood God had allowed these things in his life, but he openly struggled and plead to God as we read how he poured out his heart to Him. During these seasons, under incredible duress, only the deep seeded inner peace of God can explain how David could rest, sleep soundly when the world was after him. Psalm 4:8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

Our lives as we know it are similar to the seasons of the calendar. God continually allows seasons of change as the act of sanctification for our time here. The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, penned in a book little read, a broad stroke of a picture of the sanctification of God in us: Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; 3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; 7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak. All we must do, to grasp a small understanding of how God works in our lives, is to seek him daily in prayer and his Word. These great men who endured great pain, still remained true in their faith. These great patriarchs show us that God allows it all in a blend of design we cannot comprehend, but can have faith in his Will for our lives. True rest comes to those that understand the words penned in Ecclesiastes, that our lives are like the seasons of the calendar.