Some of you may recognize that the title of my post is the title of the first section of Ecclesiastes 1. I am currently in a life group with some of my good buddies at BIOLA and we just started reading through and discussing Ecclesiastes. Last Thursday night we went over Ecclesiastes 1 and I was blown away by what I learned. I am going to be completely honest with you but when I first read over Ecclesiastes 1 I felt a overwhelmed, confused, and depressed. If any of you have ever read Ecclesiastes 1 you know why. It talks about how living a life not for the kingdom of God is not a life worth living. In other words it is useless. There are many things that we do in life that may not be bad but if those things are keeping us from bringing glory to God then they are insubstantial. Everything we do in life should be for the glory of God. A verse that stood out to me in Ecclesiastes 1 was verse 7, "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again." What Solomon (the author of Ecclesiastes) means by this is that all people's experiences that are not lived out for the kingdom of God will never fill nor satisfy them just as the rivers will never fill the sea. There may be things in life that bring us temporary satisfaction but only God can bring us a satisfaction that lasts forever. Everything we do must be for the glory of God. When we seek to glorify God we are filled with an unexplainable joy but when we seek to glorify ourselves we will find nothing but emptiness. A life lived for ourselves brings death but a life lived for God brings life!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
All is Vanity
Some of you may recognize that the title of my post is the title of the first section of Ecclesiastes 1. I am currently in a life group with some of my good buddies at BIOLA and we just started reading through and discussing Ecclesiastes. Last Thursday night we went over Ecclesiastes 1 and I was blown away by what I learned. I am going to be completely honest with you but when I first read over Ecclesiastes 1 I felt a overwhelmed, confused, and depressed. If any of you have ever read Ecclesiastes 1 you know why. It talks about how living a life not for the kingdom of God is not a life worth living. In other words it is useless. There are many things that we do in life that may not be bad but if those things are keeping us from bringing glory to God then they are insubstantial. Everything we do in life should be for the glory of God. A verse that stood out to me in Ecclesiastes 1 was verse 7, "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again." What Solomon (the author of Ecclesiastes) means by this is that all people's experiences that are not lived out for the kingdom of God will never fill nor satisfy them just as the rivers will never fill the sea. There may be things in life that bring us temporary satisfaction but only God can bring us a satisfaction that lasts forever. Everything we do must be for the glory of God. When we seek to glorify God we are filled with an unexplainable joy but when we seek to glorify ourselves we will find nothing but emptiness. A life lived for ourselves brings death but a life lived for God brings life!
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i love your blog name. so good(!!!!!!!!!) ecclesiastes is super depressing and super realistic and super wonderful all in the same bit. i have felt so many different emotions and thoughts reading through and i love hearing yours. it couldn't be better put than "A life lived for ourselves brings death but a life lived for God brings life!"
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Connor, this was the best thing I could've read today! Thank you so much! It's unfortunately too true that earthly temptations are often more instantly gratifying, but will ultimately leave you unsatisfied. This is something I also struggle with a lot, living in an earthly world. But your post was so inspiring, "when we seek to glorify God, we are filled with an unexplainable joy." Nothing sustains us like Him. :)
ReplyDeleteConnor, This post is beautiful. And so is ecclesiastes.. although it's depressing, the verse that you wrote, 7, is incredible. When I was in high school, my mentors taught on this and a few of my girlfriends and I dedicated your blog title to how we wanted to identify our lives: God first, others second, I'm third. Love it, keep it up!
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