Ecclesiastes 3:9-13The Message
9-13 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. I’ve decided that there’s nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That’s it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It’s God’s gift.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
God has no bounds ….
God will fit in no one’s box even if the size of that box is the size of the universe.
Yet, in restrictive confines our own humanity, we serve a God of boundaries.
In God’s limitless capacity, endless creativity, indescribable glory and infinite wisdom, His boundless existence, God still chose to create boundaries for us.
God still had vision for what was good, right, pleasing, and perfect.
And as children made in his image, we are to live, think, and create as he does.
In a world marked by unbounded busyness from seemingly boundless infinite opportunities, it’s important now more than ever for us to create boundaries.
And still, in God’s infinite wisdom, He knew we would never be satisfied with such a limited, narrowed and restrictive space being forced and pushed upon us.
Our ever wiser God, full of grace and truth and a vision of and for reality, knew we would never be satisfied with our unlimited limits and unlimited boundaries.
This is a lesson we learned from the Tower of Babel – we want to reach the sky!
We are insatiable creatures.
We are insatiably curious, we have this insatiable desire, in that we want to know, to see, to experience, go far beyond the limits of the known Universe.
And the miraculous part of it is this, even after Babel …. IT IS A GIFT OF GOD!
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 Amplified Bible
God Set Eternity in the Heart of Man
11 He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live; 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and see and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.
To be a true person of vision is to live this life in light of eternity.
Without a real revelation of eternity, this life will be marked by hopelessness and a sense of aimless wandering.
Without a real revelation of eternity, our limited vision for a life of unlimited abundance and blessings would stop directly with eyes in front of our hands.
God wants us to know Him!
God wants us to be in relationship with him!
God wants us to be in an everlasting connection with Him.
“remove THY hands from in front of THY faces, seek MY face, seek MY hands!”
Only when our destination comes into view can we rightly see the diverse array, the myriad and myriad of various circumstances littered, strewn along the long and winding and widening concourses of this temporary life God limits us to.
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13Easy-to-Read Version
11 God gave us the ability to think about his world,[a] but we can never completely understand everything he does. And yet, he does everything at just the right time.
12 I learned that the best thing for people to do is to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live. 13 God wants everyone to eat, drink, and enjoy their work. These are gifts from God.
To look to eternity requires us to trust.
Our minds are finite.
In the only world we have ever known, life is marked by a beginning and end, by birth and death.
But in and throughout the length and breadth of Scripture we discover that God is the Maker of life, the Great and infinite Physician and the Conqueror of death.
We discover in the coming of Jesus, as is revealed in the four Gospels, we are promised eternal life in unhindered, unveiled, communion with our Creator.
To live with our limited vision for eternity is limitless trust things are not as they will be and to surrender the entirety of this life with hope for the next.
When we live seeking satisfaction from the things of the world, we live as if heaven did not exist and God did not usher in his kingdom through Jesus.
Our limited vision for the things of this world would grow abundantly, blessedly grow more and more dim, to only have final value in the Giver of all good gifts.
So our possessions, relationships, and work only have value here because they are a series of diverse shadows of what is to come when all things are made new.
God planted the seed of eternity within us knowing, only through Him, it will germinate and raise itself above the ground revealing the vast beauty therein.
Having such a vision of vast beauty here on earth our vision for eternity should prayerfully lead us to create beautiful boundaries around everything in this life.
It should lead us to such an abundantly beautiful lifestyle of surrender that our hearts might never become tied to that which is fleeting, can never fully satisfy.
Leads us to a lifestyle of fully enjoying all the beautiful the things God has given and gifted to us, including our vision of Immanuel, all the while knowing all the things of this life are merely fleeting shadows in comparison to what is to come.
Do you feel tied to the things of your life today?
Feel as if your unlimited vision of eternity is forever tied to your possessions, relationships, work owns you rather you enjoying them to the glory of God?
From your vision of eternity, are you only seeking to find total satisfaction in the “rusty” things of the world, or are you finding peace in the hope of heaven?
Take time today in guided prayer to surrender your life again to Jesus.
Allow God to cut away any ties you have to that which is chaining your heart to this world.
Find abundant joy and peace in the unlimited freedom that comes from God’s promised gifts of abundance and blessings living in light of a limitless eternity.
May you find freedom and joy these days as you receive the gift of vision and set up beautifully hopeful, prayerful boundaries under the leadership of Holy Spirit.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Take quality time today in guided prayer to surrender your life again to Jesus.
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on what the Bible says about eternity. Allow Scripture to fill you with vision for what’s to come.
“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” Psalm 102:25-27
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3
“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:2-3
2. Are you living in light of eternity? Do you feel your heart tied down to any things of the world?
31 “Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 That’s what those people who don’t know God are always thinking about. Don’t worry, because your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. 33 What you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what he wants you to do. Then he will give you all these other things you need. 34 So don’t worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Tomorrow will have its own worries.” Matthew 6:31-34
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John 2:15
3. Hopefully, Prayerfully set boundaries around having vision for eternity.
Lay down anything holding you back from living in freedom from this world at the feet of Jesus.
Take time to enjoy God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, that the foundation of your vision for life would be full communion with him.
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek[a] my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”[b]
9 Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation! Psalm 27:7-9
My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord
84 How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise! Selah
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.[b]
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
10 For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you! Psalm 84
In Galatians 5:16 Paul writes, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
When you take time to enjoy God every day and seek to live in communion with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God will faithfully guide you away from your vision of the “rust worthy” things of the world and full into His fullness of joy in Him.
May you find comfort and hope in connection with the living God today as you seek to live with God’s boundless, boundary less, unlimited vision for eternity.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 