Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 English Standard Version
The God-Given Task
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
“Faith and love are apt to be spasmodic in the best of minds. Men and women live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which they never enter, and with their hand on the door latch, they die outside.” ~ Christian Apologist, G. K. Chesterton
When I read and re-read this quote from Chesterton today on my Facebook feed yesterday, as I closed out the activities for my 62nd Birthday, it reminded me of that passage in Ecclesiastes, a passage that said God “put eternity in our hearts.”
All the while I was in my Mother’s womb, God weaved “eternity into my heart.”
Somewhere, somehow, God, my Creator, weaved “eternity deep into my DNA.”
Because God did this to me and for me, before I was even aware, of God, I can never shake the irrepressible feeling deep within my soul that there absolutely has to be something infinitely more waiting for me in eternity than in this life.
Collectively, in our response to this inner sense of eternity, we can and often do spend our lives either unaware of it, denying it, sidestepping it, fleeing from it, or attempting to resolve it without the assistance of the One who placed it there.
And this only leaves only leaves us in that empty space we call “wanting more.”
What we are called to do instead is turn to the One of whom it is said, “from him and through him and to him are all things” (Romans 11:36)(ESV).
Romans 11:33-36 English Standard Version
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
We turn to the only One in whom we find our origin, our purpose, our destiny.
We can know the only One who holds for each of His Children, in His righteous right hand, the indescribable feeling for eternity that He placed in our hearts.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)(ESV).
Jesus said, unto his disciples a day before he died;
John 14:25-27 The Message
25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
This is the only path that will satisfy that nagging sense of greater things and the only path that leads us all to both reconciliation and an eternity with God.
The Gift of A Prayer to Live with Eternity in Mind
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 The Message
16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.
Eternity is a simple word but a complex concept.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”
- We waited in line for something relatively inconsequential for an eternity.
- We are waiting for the blessed announcement of a baby being born.
- We are waiting for the announcement that someone has passed away.
- We are waiting for the arrival of family on Christmas or Easter Day.
- We are waiting for laboratory and radiology test results to be read.
- We are waiting for the bank to approve our very first Mortgage.
- We think spring will never come; winter has lasted for an eternity.
- We have a vacation planned for only a few weeks away, but it feels like an eternity on the calendar.
- We are waiting for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to Return – “as promised.”
The undeniable reality is that, as humans, we cannot truly fathom eternity.
We know that God has provided eternal life to those who trust in His Son Jesus, but our understanding of the weight of eternity is beyond our comprehension.
Recently, I have come across numerous sermon series, devotional articles, and books, social media posts encouraging believers to live with eternity in mind.
But what exactly does that mean?
Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (NLT).”
Life in a fallen world is tough; there’s no escaping the effects of sin in our lives.
But, we can shift our priorities, our mindsets our perspective, focusing on the things that matter to God (the eternal) and sacrificing ourselves, surrendering ourselves, letting go of those things that don’t matter (the things of this world).
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
As one of my favorite preachers sermonized, “preaches easy, lives hard.”
We are ever so easily, quickly distracted, discouraged, and disillusioned daily.
It is impossibly challenging to “keep on persevering, keep on pushing forward in our faith, and remain steadfast and immovable always abounding in God’s work.”
The world’s message is “live your best life now,” but God’s word preaches us so utterly and radically different, stating “your forever life is yet to come.”
If we back up a verse to 2 Corinthians 4:17, Apostle Paul again reminds us,
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
What we are experiencing today will one day come to an end.
Even if the season of steadfast and immovable sorrow drags on forever or your difficult circumstances continue to stay the same day after day, God will still make everyone and everything new one day – and in this new world, His eternal kingdom, there will be no more tears and pain – Just LIFE (Revelation 21:1-4).
I am not sure what anyone of you readers are going through today but PLEASE be ENCOURAGED, be EMPOWERED and take heart; God sees and cares for you.
Psalm 121 The Message
121 1-2 I look up to the mountains;
does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
Guardian will never doze or sleep.
5-6 God’s your Guardian,
right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
sheltering you from moonstroke.
7-8 God guards you from every evil,
he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
he guards you now, he guards you always.
On this side of Heaven, you may continue to experience the consequences of sin, but please be INSPIRED, be an INSPIRATION, God’s great mercy provided a way for all His Children to have eternal peace through salvation in Christ Jesus.
Be the ENCOURAGER, Pray, Cling, to the eternal hope we have in our salvation, and let the presence of the Holy Spirit fill you as you live with eternity in mind.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for being a God who cares about our burdens. We know that you are God who sees and hears the cries and prayers of your children. Help us to live with eternity in mind. Blessed Intercessor Holy Spirit of God, We pray fervently you will Be with us as we strive to focus more on the eternal, shifting our perspective from temporary things that distract us from living a life for Your glory alone. Forgive us when we sin against you, and be with us as we pursue holiness.
We love you, Lord; we are undeserving of your grace and mercy but thankful that you freely grant us both. We ask that you strengthen and help us as we share the Gospel in a broken world. Guide our conversations, and direct our paths to those who need to experience the eternal hope of salvation through Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ Name.
Adeste Fideles! Laeti Triumphantes! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
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). 