Pressing on in our Ecclesiastes, Solomon the preacher speaks about aforementioned times for everything, and those times are only known by God.  In other words, we can’t predict the future, only God knows what is going to happen:

Ecc 8:6  For there is a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy upon him.

That trouble that lays heavy on us is the anxiety that we don’t know when bad things might happen to us.  For example, I could work out every day and eat the cleanest food possible, and that might spare me from getting a heart attack at age 60, but there is no preventing me getting hit by a car tomorrow.  

Solomon says that trouble of not knowing when things are going to happen, weights heavy on us.  Just rewind back to a year ago, with COVID.  We knew it was coming once we saw the death counts going up in Italy, but we didn’t know if it was going to be as bad, not bad at all or even worse.  Looking back, just the not knowing of it all almost seems worse than the actual event itself.  

In fact, there’s all things that can weigh heavy on our hearts.  Is my kid going to get sick, am I going to have enough money to retire on, am I going to fail Algebra?  There is no shortage of stuff in the world to occupy our brains with when it comes to worry. 

Paul the Apostle gives us a great instruction on what to do when our heart starts to feel weighed down with the burdens of our lives at the end of his letter to the Church in Phillipi, Phillipians Chapter 4:6-7.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Living an active prayer life, and a genuine, not just repeating a bunch of words we learned as kids, but a heartfelt prayer to God asking for His divine guidance and ease will bring about a peace in our hearts that is above the human pay grade of understanding.  

Something to reflect on, and to do regularly, not just calling out to God when we need Him for something, but to actively pray…do it everyday.  We can do it in the shower, the car ride to work, with our family before bed time, whenever, but Paul tells us, that the way to beat worry and the anxiety that Solomon is alluding to, is pray and pray often.