Day 36 You are God - I am not!

Day 36 There is a Time for Everything
Reading: Ecclesiastes 3
In the end of Chapter 2 Qoheleth says this,
24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God.
Life is about pleasing God. And though the Beatles seem to have stolen chapter 3, man does have purpose in fulfilling God’s plan.
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Life has cycles and without God, it would seem meaningless.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
Here is the message from what seems to be a pessimistic book, God put eternity in our hearts but we live in temporal place. That creates tension. That gives us a sense that both should be at work. We try to make temporal things have eternal meaning . . . and they don’t . Our work, accomplilshment, stuff are all going to burn. The only things that lasts are humans. Humans have eternity in them, everything else doesn’t. Therefore, be happy with your work here but focus on God and people.
Lord, help remove the discontent from my heart. Whatever you bring to me, will enjoy. Whatever you place I find myself, I will praise you. You are God – I am not! My ambition and attempts to make life work without you always fail and are meaningless. I am your servant, teach me and speak to me now.