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26 April 2007
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
The best that people can do is eat, drink, and enjoy their work. I saw that even this comes from God, because no one can eat or enjoy life without him. If people please God, God will give them wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But sinners will get only the work of gathering and storing wealth that they will have to give to the ones who please God. So all their work is useless, like chasing the wind.
In the first two books of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has considered wisdom, pleasure and work, and found them all useless, in that they cannot provide ultimate answers or fulfilment, or lead to eternal life. Nevertheless, as we come to the end of Solomon's reflections on his own experience, he concludes that they can provide something.
What can they provide? Enjoyment of life! For example, as I stop for lunch, I can rejoice in what I have achieved in the morning. Why? Because "even this comes from God, because no one can eat or enjoy life without him". God doesn't want us to sit around being miserable - he wants us to enjoy life!
The secret lies in where we begin. If we are self-centred and materialistic, we can never be truly satisfied, as there will always be a desire to want more and more and more.
But a person who makes God the centre of their life has a different perspective. A perspective that treats each day as being a gift from God, and seeks to use it as best they can. A perspective that rejoices in the little 'God-moments', such as a child's laugh, an email from a friend, a dew-covered cobweb shimmering in the morning sunlight. A perspective that knows true satisfaction can only be found in the arms of God, the one who provides every good and perfect gift.
When was the last time you experienced a 'God-moment'? Think back to it and spend some time in quiet remembering it. God provides these moments all the time, but we are often so busy that we miss them. So ask God for a moment like that to happen today ... look out for it ... and when it happens, rejoice in it and thank God for it.
Written by Capt. Chris Routledge CA.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
The best that people can do is eat, drink, and enjoy their work. I saw that even this comes from God, because no one can eat or enjoy life without him. If people please God, God will give them wisdom, knowledge, and joy. But sinners will get only the work of gathering and storing wealth that they will have to give to the ones who please God. So all their work is useless, like chasing the wind.
In the first two books of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has considered wisdom, pleasure and work, and found them all useless, in that they cannot provide ultimate answers or fulfilment, or lead to eternal life. Nevertheless, as we come to the end of Solomon's reflections on his own experience, he concludes that they can provide something.
What can they provide? Enjoyment of life! For example, as I stop for lunch, I can rejoice in what I have achieved in the morning. Why? Because "even this comes from God, because no one can eat or enjoy life without him". God doesn't want us to sit around being miserable - he wants us to enjoy life!
The secret lies in where we begin. If we are self-centred and materialistic, we can never be truly satisfied, as there will always be a desire to want more and more and more.
But a person who makes God the centre of their life has a different perspective. A perspective that treats each day as being a gift from God, and seeks to use it as best they can. A perspective that rejoices in the little 'God-moments', such as a child's laugh, an email from a friend, a dew-covered cobweb shimmering in the morning sunlight. A perspective that knows true satisfaction can only be found in the arms of God, the one who provides every good and perfect gift.
When was the last time you experienced a 'God-moment'? Think back to it and spend some time in quiet remembering it. God provides these moments all the time, but we are often so busy that we miss them. So ask God for a moment like that to happen today ... look out for it ... and when it happens, rejoice in it and thank God for it.
Written by Capt. Chris Routledge CA.
