To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
To everything there is a season. “Season” simply means a period of time. A season is a period of time for a certain activity.
We are in the full swing of the Christmas season. It’s a period of time – a period of time when we, as Christians, focus on the birth of Christ. Although this period of time seems to lengthen each year, thanks to ambitious retailers, the Christmas season is roughly from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.
My wife likes the football season. It’s the period of time that runs from early fall to January. In our household, there is some minor grieving after the Super Bowl because football season is over until the next September!
When you think of the seasons, you likely think of spring, summer, fall and winter. I love spring and summer because I enjoy the sun and warm weather. I know fall is beautiful, but I have a hard time enjoying it because I know what season is coming next!
Seasons are inevitable. They are painted onto the canvas of creation. They are ordered by God, Himself:
Genesis 1:14 (KJV) – 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 8:22 – While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. KJV
How long will there be seasons? As long as the earth exists there will be seasons. It’s inevitable. It’s inescapable.
In as much as seasons are inescapable and permanent, the seasons themselves are only temporary. A season is just that – a season. And whatever the season is, it will always change and a new season will come.
If you’re a scrooge and don’t like Christmas, be patient, the season will be over soon. The decorations will come down and the Christmas music on the radio will change.
I hate the winter. But during the cold I remind myself, “This, too, shall pass.” Spring will come. 80 degree days will return! The only thing permanent about seasons is that the season itself is NOT permanent.
It’s important to understand seasons. When you understand seasons, it brings you hope. The understanding of seasons brings hope when I’m going through difficulty. That understanding reminds me that my season won’t last forever. That understanding brings me some comfort and encouragement. I’m reminded that a new season will come.
Psalm 30:5… Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
I may be in a season of distress right now. I may be weeping now – but it’s just a season! It may be nighttime right now, but the light of dawn will come!
This understanding brings me hope. If you don’t understand seasons, you might lose your mind. You might give up and quit. You might give in to the discouraging voice of the enemy that says, “Just curse God and die.”
But if you understand seasons, then you say to yourself, “Morning will come.” “I may be weeping now, but it’s just a season. And, because you have that understanding, you press on! You say to yourself:
I can make it if I know there is light at the end of the tunnel! And that is what understanding seasons gives me: light at the end of the tunnel. I can make it if I know my trial has an expiration date.
When you’re in the middle of a crisis, discouragement and hopelessness come knocking. The enemy tells you to give up. He says you’ll never make it. He tries to get you to surrender your hope and faith. But when you understand seasons, then you remind yourself that your trial won’t last forever. What I’m going through is tough, but I’m gonna to get to the other side of this storm.
Jesus told His disciples, ““Let us pass over unto the other side.” Between here and 
there, we’ll face a storm, but we are going to the other side. The storm is just a season. Remember – the storm is only temporary. No matter how fierce the winds and waves, they won’t last forever. The sun is going to shine again. The clouds will soon dissipate.
What are you telling me? I’m giving you hope! I’m encouraging you today to hold on to God and keep walking. Whatever season you’re in, remember it won’t last forever. Whatever adversity has you stressed, be faithful to God – you will come through. The storm you’re braving has an end.
Remember what Paul told the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 4:17 – 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…
Our light affliction is but for a moment – a season. It’s important to understand seasons. Affliction doesn’t last forever. It will pass. Not only is affliction temporary, but affliction is working for me, not against me. (But that’s another message for another time!)
If I lived in Barrow, Alaska, I might lose my mind! If I knew that it would never get above 30 degrees and that most days of the year it will be well below zero, then I’d probably go crazy. In Indiana, I just remind myself as I’m scraping the ice and snow off my windshield, “It’s just a season. Spring will come.”
Whatever difficulty you are going through, my friend, remember that it’s just a season.
~Matthew Ball
