June 27

“The ‘preacher’, as the author of Ecclesiastes calls himself, tried to solve the problem of earthly happiness.  ‘I sought in my heart,’ he says, ‘till I might see what was good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.’ (2:3)....At the end, in reviewing it all, he was forced to declare that ‘all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.’ (2:11)”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 6/27

We can easily get caught up in making sure all the bases are covered, all the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted, and that no stone goes unturned in trying to make our lives secure and happy.  There is some validity in this in that it is prudent.  God gives us a mind that we should use in a common sense way, but we must be careful not to make it a god.  Because I’ve been a person like I’ve described I must take Ecclesiastes’ wisdom to heart.  It would seem that the way to do this is to look at the motivation behind the things I do.  Am I doing this so that I can be secure and happy, or am I doing this because God desires me to because it is necessary to achieve His will for my life?  In the end, if I am truly seeking to bring God glory, then all things I do will eventually be to that end.  That is why Jesus was able to sum up the whole law in two sentences.

“And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.’” Matthew 22:37-40