Stress Test Devotional April 20
April 20, 2024
ECCLESIASTES 1:3-7
What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hurries to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.
Time is experienced so differently from moment to moment. It can be mundane or sublime, drudgery or delight. Ecclesiastes expresses the sense of time’s inevitable power to bring age, dissolution, and decay. Chronos, like an ever-rolling stream, soon bears us all away; we fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day!
But with the arrival of Jesus, Chronos time is open to Kairos time. We must be awake and alert for God sightings, for moments of fulfillment, for signs of the eternal Kingdom. When people come to faith, when God is honored and blessed, when justice triumphs over evil, when love is real and genuine—it is Kairos time.
PRAYER
Gracious God, Help me to experience time as a gift and not a burden, a blessing and not a curse. Open my eyes to the Kingdom activity around me and open my lips to sing your praise. Let me experience Kairos among the Chronos. Amen.
