Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
“The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher.
‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!’
‘What does a man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
Round and round it goes,
ever returning to its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
There is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
‘Look! This is something new’?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of men of old,
And even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered by those who follow.’"
Wow! What a depressing passage of Scripture! Have you ever felt this way, though? Like everything in this world is without meaning.
The book of Ecclesiastes was written from the perspective of a man later in his life, looking back. When we’re older, what are we going to look back and see that we were chasing? What are we chasing now that is meaningless? Our efforts and pursuits outside of God working
IN us and
THROUGH us is completely without meaning to Him. I’m asking the Lord today to show me what it is I am chasing or pursuing or striving toward that is outside of His working in my life…will you do the same thing?
One cool thing occurred to me as I was reading this verse, though: The Lord gave me an answer to one of the questions above. Solomon asked,
“Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’?” The Bible uses the word “new” many times, but this one is a favorite of mine:
“Yet I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
His mercies are
new every morning……He shows us
new things in a
New way at a
NEW time!
Let’s enjoy the brand new mercies He has for us today, making every opportunity count for Him and not for ourselves. In doing so, our hope will be re-new, New, NEWed!
Help us to do that today, Lord. Be our Source, be our Guide.
Be what we long for, crave and chase after this day……
In Your Name of Hope we pray, Amen.
