Show Notes
READ: ECCLESIASTES 3:1-15
I love winter. There’s something about the chill in the air, the freshness I feel when I step outside, and the way everything feels still for a moment. But right now, we’re just starting to enter fall and honestly this past summer felt like it would never end. It was long, hot, and it just kept going.
And I think we can all agree that’s how life feels sometimes too. There are seasons that stretch longer than we expected. The kind where you start to wonder if things will ever shift again. The waiting seasons. The heavy seasons. The “I thought I’d be out of this by now” moments.
But Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that there’s a time and purpose for everything under heaven. God’s loving, intentional timing is woven into every rise and fall, every loss and gain, every quiet and every storm. The God who commands the earth to change from one season to another is the same God who loves you and is guiding the seasons of your life.
Just like the weather eventually changes, so will your season—nothing in this world is eternal except for God Himself. What feels endless today will one day be something you look back on, and you might even be able to see the ways God was at work.
You may be in a time of breaking or a time of building. A time of silence or a time of speaking, but none of it is forever. Seasons are meant to move. Even when it feels like summer will never end, fall is already forming.
God doesn’t waste time; He transforms it. So I encourage you to embrace the work God is doing in your current season. Embrace the discoveries, the quiet moments with God, and the hidden growth. Embrace the cold or hot mornings. Because whether you feel it or not, God is with you in every moment, and His glory is still shining through.
And one day, when the air shifts and your season changes, you may be able to see the ways He was faithful through it all. Every season has a purpose, even the ones that feel too long.
God is in them all. • Maddison Willett
• Where do you see God at work in your current season?
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)
More from Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens
READ: MATTHEW 6:19-21; JOHN 3:16-17; 14:1-4; REVELATION 19:6-9; 21:1-5
READ: PSALM 139:1-4; ROMANS 5:6-8; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 We curate the caption and crop the distraction, Chasing the applause of a virtual reaction. We polish the exterior to hide the interior, Afraid that our true selves are somehow inferior. But in the quiet, when the screen goes black, We feel the heavy weight of the perfection we lack. See, Jesus didn’t come for your highlight reel, He came for the brokenness you try to conceal. No filter could cover the crimson cost of sin, So He opened His arms to let the rebels in. On the cross, He was exposed, stripped, and bruised, So the real you would never have to be refused. He was buried in the dark so you could walk in the light, Tearing the veil to make your future bright. The grave couldn’t hold Him, the stone rolled away, Giving you mercy that is new every day. You are not a brand, a post, or a trend, You are chosen, beloved, and called His friend. So drop the performance, let the pretense cease, And rest in the rhythm of His perfect peace. • Ty Scott King • Why do you think it’s sometimes easier to show people a curated version of ourselves rather than who we really are? What parts of yourself do you try to curate, edit, and hide away? • Jesus sees the unedited version of you, and He loves you so much that He died and rose again for you. How could this truth affect the way yo view your mistakes, flaws, or things you just don’t like about yourself? • Are there any areas of your life where you feel like you’re putting on a performance instead of trusting God’s grace? Consider spending some time in prayer, laying these things down at Jesus’s feet and asking Him to help you see yourself the way He sees you. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)