Identity // Navigating Seasons - Floats & Flowers Pacific Coast Church Pastors JF & Ashley Wilkerson
Identity // Navigating Seasons - Floats & Flowers
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 NIV
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:13 NIV
13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Floats
Flowers
Galatians 6:7-9 NIV
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Isaiah 55:8-11 NIV
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Genesis 8:22 NIV
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
Questions
1. How can understanding that “no season lasts forever” help you in both good times and bad?
2. How can this idea of floating help shape your view of friendships?
3. How can understanding the rhythms of growing fruit in the natural help us have proper perspective of the Lord growing spiritual fruit in and through us?