SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/12/2013
8:35 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Life is a
Gift: Enjoy It PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl. 11:7-10
Message of the
verses: We will look at the sixth
and final admonition “that we accept life as a gift and learn to enjoy all that
God shares with us. In order to do this,
we must obey three instructions: rejoice
(11:7-9), remove (11:10), and remember (12:1-8).” (Be Satisfied)
Rejoice (11:7-9): “7
¶ The light is pleasant, and it is good
for the eyes to see the sun. 8 Indeed,
if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him
remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to
come will be futility. 9 Rejoice, young
man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of
young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your
eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.” (NASB)
“7 ¶ Light is sweet; how pleasant
to see a new day dawning. 8 When people
live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also
remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.
9 Young people, it’s wonderful to be
young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in.
But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.” (NLT)
We have mentioned before that it is thought that Solomon
was older when he penned the book of Ecclesiastes and so he can look back at
his youth and understand the things he did then and not that he is older he can
see how time has changed things in his life.
My mother lived to be 90+ years old and she often told me that old age
is called the golden age, but it was the doctors who got all of the gold. Solomon is not saying that when you are young
that all things will go well with you and when you are older things will not go
well for you, but is making a generalization stating that youth is a time to
enjoy life, and do the things that one will not be able to do when they get
older. Dr. Wiersbe tells of a person
from whom his middle name came from and this man lived into his nineties and
when he went to visit him during this time of his life his friend told him “I
don’t go out much now because my parents won’t let me—Mother nature and Father
Time!”
I don’t think that it matters whether we are young or
old, but each day we should get up and rejoice that the Lord has given us
another day, and we should ask for wisdom on how we can bring glory to the Lord
that day.
Remove (vs. 10): “10
So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body,
because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting. (NASB)
“10 So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that
youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.” (NLT)
The NLT uses the word “worry” in the beginning of the
verse while the NASB uses “grief and anger” and the KJV uses the word “sorrow.” I think that worry is the best way to
understand the meaning of what Solomon is talking about here. Worry is something that most all people have
at one time or another, and worry can help destroy our physical bodies. Jesus never worried about anything, but it
may be possible that He was anxious when it came to the cross. I was driving in my car one day when I began
to think of two different verses that did not seem to go together and so I
began to do some research. The one verse
was speaking of Jesus sweating great drops of blood, while the other verse in
Philippians tells us to be anxious for nothing.
Paul goes on to tell us what we should do in the event we get anxious
and as I read what Jesus was doing it seemed to me that He was following what
Paul wrote about in Philippians. I believe that the hardest things that Jesus
faced when going to the cross were being separated from His Father and becoming
sin for those He would die for, and this indeed make Him anxious, but He cried
out to His Father for strength to carry on.
Solomon tells us to remove worry as it will harm our
bodies. We are only to fear the Lord and
nothing else: “6 Be anxious for nothing,
but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all
comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Again the NLT seems to have a better translation of the
words that are translated as “childhood and youth” in the KJV, for the word is
actually vanity of which the NLT always uses meaningless. Dr. Wiersbe writes that this “does not mean
that these stages in life are unimportant and a waste of time. Quite the opposite is true! The best way to have a happy adult life and a
contented old age is to get a good start early in life and avoid the things
that will bring trouble later on. Young
people who take care of their minds and bodies, avoid the destructive sins of
the flesh, and build good habits of health and holiness, have a better chance for
happy adult years than those who ‘sow their wild oats’ and pray for a crop failure.”
Charles Spurgeon wrote “Youthful sins lay a foundation
for aged sorrows.” This is true and that
is why Solomon took so much time in writing the proverbs that he wrote in the
book of Proverbs about how to bring up children. I must say that he did not seem to do such a
good job, but it was not the fault of his instructions.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have a desire
to have a healthy body in my older years as I think is a good thing to do. I also have a desire to seek the wisdom of
the Lord in order to live a fulfilled spiritual life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verse for the
week: Psalm 46: 1.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Answer to yesterday’s
SD: “Because his heart was truned away
from the Lord and to other gods.”
(2Kings 11:9-11)
Today’s Bible
Question: “What did Paul do for Publius’
father?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
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