Daily Worship

Lord of time

Gordon Kennedy October 31, 2013 0 0

Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

There is a time for everything, 
and a season for every activity under heaven: 
a time to be born and a time to die, 
a time to plant and a time to uproot, 
a time to kill and a time to heal, 
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, 
a time to mourn and a time to dance, 
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 
a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 
a time to search and a time to give up, 
a time to keep and a time to throw away, 
a time to tear and a time to mend, 
a time to be silent and a time to speak, 
a time to love and a time to hate, 
a time for war and a time for peace. 

What does the worker gain from his toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

Lord Jesus Christ,
you are the one who came down from heaven to earth,
who from the timelessness of eternity
entered our time constrained lives.

You know what it is like to not have enough time
to finish each day with work still to do,
the burden of the busy.

And yet you always had time,
time to rise and pray,
time to listen and to speak,
time to care and heal.

Set us free today
from the ping of the incoming email,
from the ring tone of the arriving text,
set us free in time with time.

Change our time from an impatient task master,
make our time grace filled moments.

May we today crown you, the Lord of time,
our pace-setter,
let our time be a joy to us and not a frustration. Amen.