A Time for Everything — sacred illustration
✶ Our Bible Moments No. 236 / 253

New Year

A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is the poem of the seasons, written by the Teacher, “the son of David, king in Jerusalem,” who looks hard at life under the sun.

Lord, You hold every season of my life in Your hands. Some days are for weeping and some for laughing, some for tearing down and some for building. Help me see what season I am in now, and live it well instead of fighting it. As something new begins, give me wisdom to know what to keep and what to let go. You make everything beautiful in its time. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is the poem of the seasons, written by the Teacher, “the son of David, king in Jerusalem,” who looks hard at life under the sun.

The Scripture

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose 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 break 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 cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to count as lost, a time to keep and a time to discard, 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.”

— Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Prayer points from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

  1. Thank God for the seasons He has already carried you through
  2. Name the season you are in right now
  3. Ask Him for wisdom to know what to keep and what to let go
  4. Bring Him the endings you are grieving
  5. Ask Him to bless the new things that are beginning
  6. Trust Him to make everything beautiful in its time

About this verse

The Teacher lists fourteen pairs of opposites: birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing, silence and speech, war and peace. Together they cover the whole of a human life. We do not choose most of our seasons, and none of them lasts forever. A few verses later he adds that God “has made everything beautiful in its time” and has set eternity in the hearts of men, even though we cannot fathom all that God has done. The poem is honest: it includes grief, loss and endings. But it places every season inside God’s time, not outside it. That is why it is read at funerals and graduations alike. This prayer is for anyone starting a new year, a new job, a move or any new chapter, and for anyone who is not sure what season they are in.

When to pray this prayer

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