I know… It’s the day AFTER Thanksgiving… They call it “BLACK FRIDAY!” Sounds dark, pessimistic, and negative doesn’t it… And our culture’s answer? … Just go shopping!
LISTEN, IF YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS ONLY “THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN” – WHAT GOES ON “UNDER THE SUN” – IT’S EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE FUTILITY AND NEGATIVISM OF EVERYTHING! I’m reading Ecclesiastes in the Bible right now and that is the perspective – trying to figure things out, seeking wisdom, “this side of heaven” – “under the sun.” If you do that, it’s inevitable… Your perspective will be skewed and distorted – YOU’LL MISS THE DIVINE PERSPECTIVE – the perspective with God taken into account!
I think that’s what happened to the writer of Ecclesiastes! If you try to figure things out on your own without God’s perspective, you’ll just see the ultimate futility of everything. Here’s what I read today in Ecclesiastes…
“So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and striving after the wind. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the one who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun! This also is vanity! So I turned about and gave me heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil!” (From Ecclesiastes 2:17-21)
“Happy Holidays everyone!” You sit down and try to figure it all out on your own and you might end up with the same morbid conclusion!
But here’s God’s perspective…
“God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love you showed for His sake” (Hebrews 6:10)
“Be steadfast, immovable, always a bounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain!” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)
And that’s just a few that give God’s perspective – the divine perspective! I want to see life from that perspective! Don’t you?
Coffee With The Lord 