June 19, 2012 … Seek Him! … Know Him! … Trust Him!

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Ecclesiastes, Chapters 7-12 [NIV] To study these chapters, go to this link - 

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Highlight Passage: Ecclesiastes 7: 14 :[NIV] … When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. 
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Highlight Passage #2: Ecclesiastes 8: 1; 16-17 :[NIV] … 1 Who is like the wise? … Who knows the explanation of things? … A person's wisdom brightens their face and changes its hard appearance. … 16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth - people getting no sleep day or night - 17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.  
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Highlight Passage #3: Ecclesiastes 9: 5. 10 :[NIV] … 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. … 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
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Highlight Passage #4: Ecclesiastes 10: 10 :[NIV] … If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.  
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Highlight Passage #5: Ecclesiastes 11: 4, 9 : … [NIV] 4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. [NLT - If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.] … [NIV] 9 You who are young, be happy while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
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Highlight Passage #6: Ecclesiastes 12: 13-14 :[NIV] … 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. 
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Reference Passage #1: Romans 8: 28 :[NKJV] … All things work together for those who love the Lord and who are the called according to His purpose.
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Reference Passage #2: Proverbs 3: 5-6 :[NKJV] … Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understand. In ALL your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.  

My Journal for Today: Whew, … again! I said that yesterday after studying and meditating on the first six chapters of Ecclesiastes. Now, here my chronological reading plan takes me through these last six chapters; and they seem to be more personally engulfing than the first six.

In these chapters, using his old Proverbial style of poetic couplets, Solomon takes his readers on a reflection of life, especially seeming to focus on the younger generation, as he did in the first nine chapters of the Book of Proverbs; and trying to get any believer to see that we need to do all we can to seek out and sharpen our wisdom, which really is to know God as deeply and as intimately as we can. Then, … we simply (but never easily) need to trust the God we know because all things in life come from Him.

That’s why all of Solomon’s reflections on life in Ecclesiastes boil down to the very brief, but powerful, summary statement in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 12, verses 13-14, which you can read and meditate on above, especially noting the exhortation in verse 13b to … “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” And that’s why, when I was studying through these last six chapters of Ecclesiastes today, I was taken back from my remembered Scripture to the same reference passage I copied yesterday in Roman 8: 28 as well as one of Solomon’s tried and true proverbs, one which my wife refers to often as her life verse, Prov. 3: 5-6, one which many of you probably have memorized. These two truths really – to me – summarize much of what Solomon tries to get his readers in Ecclesiastes to capture and to live out; and it’s why I titled my devotional today … "SEEK HIM … KNOW HIM … TRUST HIM!” 

 Dear fellow Christian, … if we live out our lives seeking out the mind of God, with the mentoring of His Spirit, Whom we have in our hearts as Christians, and we come to know our Lord deeply and intimately, I believe we will be driven to trust the God Whom we’ll get to know and love so abidingly. And from this pursuit, we’ll be able to avoid many of the pitfalls which Solomon discovered from his own life, mistakes, and reflections.  

My Prayer Today: … That’s my prayer today, Lord … that I do all I can in life to know you, seek Your will/way from Your word, and to trust You in all I think, say, and do. Help, me, dear Holy Spirit, to make that my trek in life. Amen