Today’s devotion is taken from Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.
A life of pleasure – me, myself and I.
In the above passage, Solomon gives an insight of his life experience. He filled his days with worldly pleasures and notice how his goals and desires were targeted only to fulfil himself – “built houses.. vineyard.. gardens for MYself, provided for MYself singers and pleasures of men.. etc.”
Sounds familiar?
Though Solomon could have anything that his heart desires, he concluded that those pleasures did not add anything to his life, other than a momentary enjoyment. Each time he repeated it, he got less enjoyment out of it.
It is always easy to fall into the trap of wanting more for our own pleasure and committing certain sins to satisfy our flesh, rather than pleasing God spiritually. It is in our human nature to desire for more money, fill our days away with nothing but entertainment and pleasures of the world. But are they worth it? Do they add anything to your life or worse, your eternal life in heaven? Can these worldly pleasures really satisfy us in the long run? A sad example is to look at celebrities who have committed suicide, even with all the money and fame in the world it could not satisfy them.
So what is our purpose on earth? How can we avoid feeling emptiness and void in our heart/ life?
God never made us to live for ourselves, though this is what the world is always telling us to do. All His gifts and life itself was never to live for our own selves. Even Jesus lived out his days not for Himself but to do his Father’s Will. We are commanded – “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but that doeth the will of God abideth forever” – (1 John 2:11-15). All of the world’s pleasures cannot fill the God vacuum in man, only Christ can! Our purpose in life is to glorify Him and all that we do must be for Him. We are all called to work in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10).
Sometimes we lose a sense of direction and purpose in our life because we are so focused on satisfying our needs. For example, we feel upset about not looking like a certain way set by worldly standard. These shouldn’t be our main goal in our life. And if we could just rewire our minds to focus on what we are created for and live for the purposes God has made us then we will not chase after meaningless things and chase after wind (v.11). When we focus solely on our own lives and not including God, then we resist and reject His ways. All of us must realize that we should no longer live for ourselves but to live for Christ. Only in Christ, we have our living water and the only one who can fill our lives with true joy.
Reflection – What are your priority in life?
I want to encourage you to stop for a moment, give yourself 10 minutes to think and reflect the things that drive you in life. How do you prioritize and allocate your resources and time in your daily life. Are we putting God in the center of our life?
Prayer
"You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water." Psalm 63:1
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for
this beautiful life that you have given us. We know that you have put us on
this earth to enjoy the beautiful things that you have created for us but help
us to remember that our purpose is not to live for ourselves but to glorify
Your name. We pray that you give us a sense of direction daily and fill our
voided heart with your Holy Spirit.
Comments
Post a Comment