Celebrate Good Times Understand The Bad Times

Ecclesiastes 7:14
When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.

New Living Translation
Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

Contemporary English Version
When times are good, you should be cheerful; when times are bad, think about what it means. God makes them both to keep us from knowing what will happen next.

Good News Translation
When things are going well for you, be glad, and when trouble comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.

Life is made of both good times and bad times. Job 2:10 Job reminds the wife that we must accept the good and the bad that God allows into our lives. Life is made of both good times and bad times. God did not design bad times, but by sinning, human beings chose to add bad times to the good God had designed for them, see Genesis 3:5 & Genesis 3:22. We were designed to know good times only, but sin exposed us to bad times, now we know the good and evil. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Life is a cocktail of good times and bad times. It is only before sin that life was made of good times only. It is only after sin in the kingdom to come that life will be made of good times only. In this life, we must drink this cocktail of good times and bad times. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Therefore since we must have both good times and bad times, we should respond to each appropriately. Thinking life will all be good or over mourning the bad times is immaturity. It is childish when we do not appreciate that good times and bad times must come. Since we must deal with both, we must respond as the Bible advises in our text today. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

The Bible tells us today using the wisdom of the man Solomon who God made wisest on earth. The Bible tells us in a commanding tone, that when life is good when times are good, we must be glad, we must celebrate, we must enjoy. Explore the happy moments fully. Be mature enough to know the good times will not last. Enjoy life while good times last. What stops people from enjoying life is thinking something better is coming when they will really enjoy it, that is wrong. Enjoy the journey do not wait to enjoy the destiny. Enjoy your studies, do not wait to enjoy the results. Enjoy dating, do not wait to enjoy marriage. If you can’t enjoy dating and courtship, marriage will for sure be a painful disaster. Enjoy the daily duties at work, do not wait to enjoy the salary or accolades at the end of a season. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Another reason why people fail to enjoy life is the fear that disaster is coming. They are right. Good times and bad times are what life is made of. Fearing bad times will not stop the bad times from coming. Instead of fearing what must come, why not enjoy what you have now? It is time for good things, therefore celebrate! The bad you fear will still come, enjoy now. Enjoy good health, it will not get better, unless Jesus returns soon, we shall end in death. Enjoy your health however frail or weak, it’s better than death. Worry about death coming should not prevent enjoyment of whatever state of health we now have. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

If you do not enjoy the good times that God gives you daily or here and there, you do not deserve more. Unless you are faithful enough to celebrate good times, you will not get any more good times from God. Matthew 25:21 is a congratulation for faithfulness in few things and now much more is granted. You can’t be given more good times if you are unable for whatever flimsy excuse to celebrate good times. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

When bad times come and they must come and will surely come, it’s painful. God doesn’t ask the impossible by saying celebrate bad times. Bad times are not times to pretend you are okay. Pretending you are okay is in the same genre as lying and bearing false witness. God knows it hurts. God knows you may not afford a smile or even appetite. God doesn’t ask us to go against natural response and pretend to be happy. God asks us to consider, to think, and to understand the bad times. We think clearly when in trouble. Bad times bring clarity of thought. Do not waste the bad times, use them to think deep and wide, and affirm your faith. That is why in bad times we are asked to understand. Understanding comes from reflection, from thinking, from considering, etc. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

What do you understand during bad times? Understand where you went wrong. Understand the cause. Understand human nature and never trust again. Jeremiah 17:5 tells us it is a curse to trust people. People betray. People breach contracts. People deceive. People smile while scheming evil. Do not bank too much on people. If you do, you will understand why you shouldn’t as you reflect when bad times come. Bad times call for an understanding of events surrounding the bad times so that we do not repeat the same mistakes so that we do not fall into the same trap. During bad times, take time to understand. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Most importantly understand the place of God and His role during bad times. During bad times we are tempted to think that God has forsaken us. Ecclesiastes 7:13 reminds us that God is God, you can’t change what He has done. You can’t straighten what He makes crooked. You cannot act against the will of God. If God wants me happy all through, no sadness will come my way. You can’t defeat God’s will. Therefore when sadness comes, when bad times come, they have not defeated God’s power, no!

The bad times are allowed by God. If God doesn’t allow it, it will not happen. If God had not allowed Satan to touch Job’s children and property, Satan would not. If God had not allowed Satan to touch Job’s health, satan would not. Satan wanted to kill Job and God said no way, and Job didn’t die. Whatever happens good or bad, is God’s will and He will make it a blessing.

If people hurt you, it is because God has allowed them to hurt you. That does not make them good because God allowed them. God allowed Satan to harm Job, but that permission did not make satan a holy angel, he remained satan. If God allows you to hurt someone, you remain an evil person. Do not be happy that God allowed you to hurt someone and therefore think that God answered your prayers or favors your wishes. Satan was allowed to harm Job and he remained Satan. When an evil plan succeeds it is not sanitized from being evil.

Matthew 26:24 Jesus was to suffer and die. Jesus had to go through bad times. But whoever facilitated it would be forever unfortunate. Jesus had to go through bad times, but whoever is used to bring the bad times to Jesus will suffer until it would be better if he had not been born. While bad times must come, do not facilitate the bad times to anyone. You will be severely punished for facilitating bad times.

Ecclesiastes 7: 14 ends by telling us God allows both the good and the bad times. If an all-wise God has allowed bad health, why should I question and doubt God’s goodness? If an all-wise God has allowed Job loss or drops in income, why should I be moody and angry? If an all-wise God has allowed heartache and pain of rejection or betrayal, who am I to overreact? If an all-wise God allows a loved one to die, who am I to question God’s love? If God has currently allowed bad times in your life, understand that He is wise and has good plans, just trust Him. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Ecclesiastes 7:14 ends by telling us that nobody knows what the future will bring. Whether good followed by bad, or good followed by better, or bad followed by worse. Whatever comes, we must consistently trust God who allows those situations to come. Let us do what God says about the good times and bad times. Celebrate good times and understand the bad times!

Dear God, remind me and enable me to celebrate good times and understand the bad times, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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