I’ve been trying to revamp my quiet time. I felt as if it had become more of a routine than me actually being an active participant. One of the ways I did this, was I purchased a journal that had been specific to the season I was in. It shared a verse, encouraged you to rewrite the verse, write a thought that came to mind, and then write your prayer and affirmation. When those 30 days were over, I went back to a journal I had previously owned, and followed a similar format.
The way I choose a verse for the day is that I observe if there was one that had been laid on my heart in the previous 24 hours or based on a conversation that I had, that ties into a passage that I was reading.
When I opened my bible this morning, it opened to Ecclesiastes. A friend and I had been discussing how meaningless life seemed to be in the days before, so of course, the opening chapters jumped out at me.
‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ Says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’ Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV
I can hear the frustration in Solomon’s voice. He’s coming close to the end of his life and he is realizing the value of life and how meaningless it can all be. He spends the first 2 verses of the book telling just how meaningless it all is. To the point where there are subsections: everything is meaningless; wisdom is meaningless; pleasures are meaningless; wisdom and folly are meaningless; toil is meaningless.
He goes into chapter 3 sharing that there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. He goes into specific details contrasting each thing. He starts with the positive and contrasts it with the opposite, but knowing that each thing has its season. He then goes through the chapters of Ecclesiastes and drops some knowledge and wisdom on us.
But he ends chapter 11 with ‘Remember your creator while young’ and concludes chapter 12:13b with ‘here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty on man’.
Have you found your life to be meaningless? How can you change that perspective?
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the wisdom found in these chapters. Thank you that while life on this earth might be meaningless, you have given us instructions to live a meaningful life in you, by obeying your commandments and living a life for you. Help us to remember you and all that you have done for us.