Last time I talked about “Everything Being Meaningless” and concluded with this thought.
“Everything I’m striving for or wishing for or envious of is meaningless. Everything outside of Him (God) is meaningless. And I should keep my eye on Him, on pleasing Him.”
Which led me to the question I’m going to explore today. Is it possible to please God?
I started reading where I let off last time: Ecclesiastes 3
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
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The other night I needed a word from the Lord about my writing, my relationships, my life. When I cracked the Bible, the book fell open to Ecclesiastes 1:1 and I started reading.
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
Okaaay… Not the answer I was expecting so I read on.
“What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever…All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
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“I am the one holding the keys to the atmosphere in our home.”
~ Terry Maxwell ~
Author of: Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit
Ouch! Does this quote ever hurt?
When my kids are out of control, I’m the reason why!
It’s an all too familiar scene. Me checking email while the kids are supposed to be doing their school work. I look up in between typing. “Joey(9), have you started your school work?” Chris is still sawing logs in bed, and Timmy (6) is playing nicely with Grace (4) because I haven’t set out his school work yet.
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“1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
Sometimes I feel like I’m just dripping with sin and no matter how God sees me and forgives me, I will never get that unconditional forgiveness from the ones I have wronged.
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I’ve been fighting a war for years…and losing. Though there has been no bloodshed and death, the war is real and damaging, mostly to myself but also to those I care about most. Some days the battles are fierce and endless and I bow my head in defeat. Other days I withstand the enemy and claim victory, knowing that tomorrow will be another day and another battle.
It’s a battle I’m sure you fight. The battle of the flesh.
Over the years I’ve seen my flesh grow weaker and undisciplined…
“Just 30 more minutes in bed. The kids can make their own breakfast.
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How quickly I forget the blessings of life?
When I think back to my childhood and through the years what comes to mind? The hard times. The hurts and pain. People who wronged me.
Why is that? Why is it so easy to remember the bad times and so hard to conjure up memories of good? Maybe you’re like me, thank God if you’re not. But I know I’m not alone. The Israelites, whom God had chosen and loved, battled the same thing.
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
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“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” NIV Heb 12:2
Why do I tend to be like the stubborn people of the Bible? Like Moses and Peter instead of the ones after God’s own heart like Joseph, David and John?
Why do I take after the ones who, though devoted to God, often shifted their focus off of him, and ended up in trouble or worse, sin?
Peter was very passionate.
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