Category: Thoughts and Meditations

“Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’
For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”
– Ecclesiastes 7:10

It would be understandable to ask why the “good old days” of say, January, were better than the present. But it isn’t wise to ask this. Usually when we gaze wistfully backwards, the “golden age” we remember wasn’t actually that golden, rather our memory edits out the bad parts. However admittedly, January wasn’t that long ago. Nonetheless, the past is the past.

Wisdom is found not in lamenting bygone days but in seeking God today in the midst of pandemic, recession, isolation, virtual education, and political battles. We must trust that God is sovereign over all these things and He has called us to serve Him in this difficult time. Rather than mourn the past, seek Him and prayerfully discern how to serve and glorify Him in the present.

What we see as the worst of times may yet prove to be the very time God does His most profound work to seek and save the billions of lost people around us. Don’t miss out on being part of that because you’re busy looking backward!

“Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.” – Ecclesiastes 4:13

We live in an age in which our certainty vastly exceeds our knowledge! Everyone’s an expert if he or she is loud enough! To avoid the risk of changing our minds, we repeat (or re-tweet) what we already think louder and stronger. We seek out only those opinions, advice, and articles that affirm our politics, science, economics, lifestyle, etc. We even distort God’s Word to conform to our worldview, rather than altering our worldview to conform to God’s Word (this is why some American Christians are adamant Jesus is a Republican while others are just as adamant than He’s a Democrat).

Too many of us too often are like the old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take advice. To take advice, we must truly be willing and able to listen. We must seek out and genuinely listen to perspectives, interpretations, understandings, and facts that are different from our own. That doesn’t mean we have to be persuaded by them, but we must remember how to listen.

Slow down. Listen. Truly listen. You shouldn’t agree with everything you hear – if you do, you need to find new people to listen to. You shouldn’t take all advice that’s given by humans, but if you don’t take some advice to change, you’re definitely missing something.

More important, come before God’s Word with the integrity to ask what it truly says rather than celebrating how it always seems to agree with you. Slow down and truly listen to God’s Word. If your daily encounters with Scripture don’t occasionally ruffle your feathers, leave you unsettled about yourself, or make you angry, then ask God to open your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to His Word, because you aren’t listening well!

“Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.” – Ecclesiastes 3:13

In a portion of the Bible exploring the futility of so many of our grand plans, initiatives, and efforts, the Teacher here reminds us of the precious gift of appreciating the simple things in life. It’s easy to take eating, drinking, and working for granted or even to grumble about them. However, they are given to us by God as a gift to enjoy each day, if we’re willing to seek the joy in them.

This year has been a vivid reminder of the futility of many of our plans, efforts, and expectations. We’ve been reminded of many of the darker truths highlighted by the writer of Ecclesiastes – illness, injustice, death, inability to plan or control the future, the existence of many forces beyond our control. We’ve even been reminded that there is indeed a time to “refrain from embracing” (verse 5).

Rather than dwelling on the darkness, let us instead use this difficult time to renew our appreciation, pleasure, and thankfulness for God’s daily provision: food to eat, water to drink, and the joy of doing whatever work God has given us to do each day for His glory!

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.”
– Proverbs 19:21

Perhaps this should be the theme verse for 2020! No doubt everyone reading this post had very different plans for this year than God did. We have been taught a valuable lesson in how little control we actually have over our lives!

The encouragement of Scripture is that while plans change endlessly, God’s purpose does not! We have all learned to plan, re-plan, and re-re-plan this year. However, as we make and change plans, let us never lose sight of the purposes of God that remain before us: to make disciples, to proclaim the Gospel, to glorify God, to love God, our neighbors, and each other, and to shine the light of Christ by our good deeds!

“Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.” – 1 Corinthians 3:12-13

Christian, what sort of work have you done for the Lord? God knows whether we’ve done work that was solidly built on the foundation of Jesus Christ using our very best efforts, abilities, gifts, and talents or whether we’ve “phoned it in” to fulfill some obligation or give the appearance of holiness.

Every Christian is called to serve the Lord and advance the Kingdom of God. Every Christian has work to do (Ephesians 2:10). We need to do the work we’re called to and we need to do it well, as an act of worship, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. At the final judgment, the earnestness of our work will be revealed before Christ’s throne.

While our salvation is assured through faith in Christ, we’ll not want our work revealed to be shoddy or half-hearted. Prayerfully discern what work you should be doing, then prayerfully do that work with everything you’ve got (especially the power of God’s Spirit living in you)![PP1] 

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 [PP1]