Morning Musings – Page 223

Morning Musings: Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

August 17, 2017August 16, 2017Leave a comment

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

Recognizing their absence of faithful works, many people think that faithful words will suffice. And for a while this seems to be the case. People hear our words and ascribe us honor because of them. We boast of great things we would do for God. This eventually becomes boasting of great things we are doing for God and boasts of great acts of faithfulness. We promise the moon…but wind up delivering only a reflection. In the end, we have only handfuls of empty promises that leave God disappointed with us and people disillusioned by us. It is better to let our actions do the talking.

Morning Musings: Ecclesiastes 4:6

August 17, 2017August 15, 20172 Comments

“Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

We live in a culture in which money is everything. Being rich is the chief end of man. For indeed, when you are rich you are freed from the worries and burdens of the world. You can enjoy the pleasures of life more freely and fully. You need not fear when storms rise up. Right???

Not even close, but the illusion here is of the most potent power there is and so we strive and toil and chase after the wind, hoping after a life most of us will never obtain. And for what? In the end, we are too tired to enjoy what we do have and we look on it with contempt anyway because it is not more.

This is vanity and futility and ultimately worthless. Solomon is right. It is better to have less and enjoy it more, than to have two hands full while yet never being able to enjoy it. Find contentment in what you have and the life that you are living with Jesus and you will always have enough. Serve the Lord faithfully in your present circumstances and they will always leave you satisfied. Receive with gladness what He gives and use it faithfully, but make the getting an aim secondary to the faithfulness.

Morning Musings: 1 Corinthians 7:20

August 16, 2017August 15, 2017Leave a comment

“Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.” (ESV – Read the chapter)

This verse fairly well serves as the theme for the whole second half of chapter 7 here. Paul’s point over the course of a number of different examples is that we can serve God in whatever state in which we currently find ourselves. God can and will take us wherever we are. There are no circumstances in which we cannot advance His kingdom into the world around us in ways both big and small. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 20:4

August 16, 2017August 17, 2017Leave a comment

“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.” (ESV)

One of the principles that comes out over and over again in the proverbs is the importance of working hard. Being lazy and relying on others to work for you is not the way to life.

While many today have internalized the mantra that they are “working for the weekend,” and that the real goal of life is to be able to relax and pursue a life of ease (often in retirement), the Scriptures proclaim a different approach. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Ecclesiastes 2:15, 20-21

August 15, 2017August 14, 2017Leave a comment

“Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. . . .So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.”

– ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭2:15, 20-21‬‬

After seeking to pursue pleasure for its own sake and coming up empty, Solomon turned his attention to wisdom and work. Once again, he came up empty. Why? We can perhaps understand work pursued as an end coming up dry. Solomon’s point is valid: We work hard, create an inheritance, pass it along to someone else, and they may or may not squander it. What’s the point?

But wisdom? Surely that should be its own reward. And yet the wise and the fool come to the same end: death. Again: What’s the point?

What we must come to realize–through Solomon’s efforts rather than our own experience hopefully–is that anything, even good things, when pursued for its own sake will not leave us satisfied with our efforts. Anything in this life when pursued as an end in itself, will prove empty. This life, because of sin, is fraught with futility. Every part is infected with it. If we take this world on its own terms and for its own sake, we will find only disappointment and frustration. What we need is the proper lens through which to see it and pursue it.

When we pursue things for the glory of God we can take them in as they were designed. And when we pursue them in accordance with their design, we will find the delight and satisfaction we are seeking. Through any other path we will only discover the futility and vanity which Solomon decried.