He has made everything appropriate in its time Ecclesiastes 3:11, NASB Someone said to me recently, ”Sometimes life is a roller coaster; you just have to strap yourself in and hold on!” Solomon says, ”God made everything appropriate in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NASB). You say, ”Appropriate to what?” Appropriate to whatever God wants to work out in your life! He’s not developing escape artists, He’s developing overcomers. In times of trouble, God has promised to provide a way out, so that you stand up under it (I cor. 10:13, NIV). We grow more ”under it,” than we do ”out of it.”
In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis tells of Satan warning one of his junior demons, ”We are never in greater danger than when they look around and all traces of God have forsaken them, yet they still choose to obey Him!”
When the three ”Hebrew children” faced the fiery furnace, they said, ”Our God is able to deliver us … and He will … but if not … we will not serve thy Gods” (Daniel 3:17-18). There are three levels of faith. The first level is, ”Our God is able.” Most of us can manage to believe that. The second level is, ”And He will.” A lot of us wish we could believe that, but we’re not sure. The third level is, ”But if not.” That’s the highest level of all! It says, but if not now or in the way I want or if not at all-I’ll still trust God!” That’s the kind of faith that glorifies Him most. It grows when you live in His Word and in His presence.
