Daily Devotional | A Time for Everything
- September 7, 2024 | Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
Have you ever struggled with timing? You know something needs to be done, and maybe you even know what to do, but you just aren’t sure when to do it? At first glance, Ecclesiastes 3:1, may not seem to be about wisdom: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens,” says the Teacher. But in the Old Testament, wisdom means knowing the right thing to do, doing the right thing, and doing the right thing at right time.
If you’ve ever built a house or played a video game, you know what this looks like. For example, it doesn’t help to know you need to frame out a room and then build the frame if the house’s foundation hasn’t been poured! The same goes for gaming— it doesn’t matter if you know you need to beat a level and even know how to beat that level if you don’t complete the necessary tasks at the right time.
In this well known passage, the Teacher tells us there is a right time for everything. There is a time for mourning and a time for dancing, a time for weeping and a time for laughing, a time for speaking up and a time for biting your tongue (vv. 1–8). Wisdom is found in knowing the right time to do the right thing, and then doing it. It sounds easy, but I imagine that there have been times in your life when it has been quite difficult to know when it was “time” to do this rather than that.
Graciously, God does not leave us alone in our search for wisdom: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5).
Go Deeper
Are you struggling with a life decision? Ask God for wisdom to do the right thing at just the right time.
Pray with Us: Lord Jesus, guide and teach us we pray, give us wisdom to do the right thing at the right time. Stay with us, keep us by Your love and faithfulness, and kindle great faith in our hearts.
BY Dr. Russell L. Meek
Russell Meek teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at Moody Theological Seminary. He writes a regular column on understanding and applying the Old Testament at Fathom Magazine, and his books include Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning in an Upside-Down World and the co-authored Book-by-Book Guide to Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary. Russ, his wife, and their three sons live in northern Idaho.