Pray

Read: Ecc 3:9-13.

Meditation

Solomon says in verse nine that the deepest pulse of the human soul is the desire for beauty and joy and goodness. We long for it. We want to see it, and taste it, and touch it, and hear it. We want fulfillment and laughter, and wonder, and beauty, and joy. There is an insatiable, ravenous desire in every heart, longing to be satisfied with goodness and beauty. We are compelled to pursue it, and we always want more. The truth is that there is an infinite hole in our souls, constantly longing and craving to be filled with something good. That is what Solomon means when he says in verse 11, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” And nothing in this world can fill that hole.

But there is something else here as well. This desire for goodness and satisfaction is not doomed to emptiness. God made us this way. That desire for goodness, truth, and beauty is a gift from him. As verse 11 says, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” He did that for a good reason. The reason is not to deny us joy. The reason, in Christ, is to fill us. Why would he make a hole in our hearts as wide and infinite as eternity itself? There is one single reason, because he wants to fill it.

Our souls were designed to feast upon God. They were designed to be lavished with his love again and again. We were designed to be drowned and immersed and saturated and overcome by his beauty and goodness. The psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Again he says, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And the earth has nothing that I desire besides you.” God the Father, revealed through Christ by the Spirit, is our ultimate good. This is the reason he has saved us, so that he, the source and substance of all that is beautiful, God himself, will satisfy our hearts.

Have you ever noticed how much you enjoy the company of people you love, friends and family? When we enjoy dinner or conversation together, hours pass like minutes. We could just keep talking and talking. It is a delight to come to know one another more deeply. We drink in each other’s attention and delight in the connection we share. This is a small picture of what life with God is meant to be like. Knowing God is like a constant conversation. We delight in his presence. We speak with him and we listen to him. And, astonishingly, as he draws us to himself through Christ, and as he sees us as being in Christ, he delights in us.

This is why God pictures our relationship with him like the relationship between a husband and wife. In that relationship there is deep and profound intimacy and connection. There is love and nearness, and joy, and beauty, and pleasure. So it is to be with our God.

If you would gain in life, if you would find what is good, start here. Stop stressing and start trusting God. Embrace the mystery of God’s providence. You cannot work out why he has appointed everything in your life, nor should you try to. Verse 11 tells us that we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. His plan is too big for us. Solomon is saying, walk by faith. We may question God’s providence and agonise over why certain things have happened, but the truth is that we cannot and will not fathom the fullness of God’s plans. His work is eternal, as verse 14 says. It is so wide and deep and high that we can never get around it, over it, or under it. His work endures forever. No one can add to it, and no one can take away from it. God is the sovereign ruler of history. Everything that happens is sovereignly appointed by him. So do not resist it or endlessly question it. Embrace it. Live as a child trusting your Heavenly Father. He does all things well, and he makes all things beautiful in their time, even the hard things.

There are two more applications. Trusting God can sound abstract, so what does it look like in everyday life? Solomon says it means at least two things. Do good, and enjoy life.

First, do good. Verse 12 says there is nothing better than to do good. As we live the Christian life in dependence on God and in thankfulness for our salvation in Christ, one question we can prayerfully and continually ask is: How can I do good right now? If we ask that question in any circumstance, and look to the word of God for guidance, we will be equipped to live well. As God answers that question and empowers us by his Holy Spirit to live it out, we will live lives that are pleasing and honourable before God and before others.

Second, take pleasure in all your toil, as verse 12 says. There are two ways of enjoying things. There is a self-oriented enjoyment, which every sinner is naturally good at, and there is a God-oriented enjoyment. Solomon is teaching us the second kind. In verse 13 he tells us to take pleasure in our toil, not as pleasure in isolation, but as pleasure rooted in the knowledge that this is God’s gift to humanity. We enjoy life as a gift, not as an entitlement and not as an addiction. We do not abuse what we have. We enjoy it for what it is, a good gift from our Heavenly Father. When we drink a glass of wine and taste it on our lips, our souls are not filled with a mindless craving for more. They are filled with wonder and thankfulness that God has done all things well, that he has made taste buds and the vast variety of food and drink to go with them.

Think of it this way. Watching a movie or enjoying a piece of art with someone is very different from doing it alone. There is a shared awareness of the experience. We talk about it afterwards, enjoy it together, and learn from it together. Enjoyment in life should never be done alone. Sometimes it will be with other people, sometimes it will not, but always it should be with God. We must learn to enjoy life in his presence, in constant prayerful communion with him as we receive his good gifts. In the quiet chirping of birds on a warm summer evening, as we sit in the shade and hear children laughing in the garden, a sigh of contentment rises, and with it a note of thanksgiving to our God. As we run on the beach or walk in fresh air, we laugh at the sheer exhilaration of life and exult in the glory of what God has made, worshipping him with all our souls. As we watch small children laughing and running, we too laugh in wonder at the mystery and beauty of the life God has made. As we enjoy life, there should be a constant awareness of God’s goodness and grace, an inescapable sense of his presence in all that we do.

My Dad once said to me, make sure you enjoy life. Our Heavenly Father would have us do the same. Enjoy your sleep, enjoy your work, enjoy your food and drink. That is what he has made them for. And above all, enjoy him.

Everything in life is empty without him, as chapter two shows us, because he is the true source of all joy and peace and beauty. If you would have good in life, if you would see life and beauty and truth, then the answer above all answers is this. Pursue Christ. Love the Lord your God with all your mind. Search the Scriptures so that you may understand. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Cry out to him and learn to delight in him. Love the Lord your God with all your soul, for he has purchased your soul with the blood of Christ. Love the Lord your God with all your strength. Spare nothing. Constantly strain after him. Only in Christ will we find our best life now. Only in his beauty and goodness will our souls find lasting peace and rest. Only as we rest in him will we find ultimate and eternal rest.

And on that day, when we stand in the new creation in new bodies, every single day will be a day in which we see more of his beauty, further and deeper, and it will never end. He has put eternity into our hearts, and in the fullness of time he will fill our hearts with eternity, never-ending, everlasting joy and peace. More and more and more, without end. His infinite beauty and goodness will be our portion forever. So brothers and sisters, as you look forward to that day, make it your business even now to pursue him with all that is within you. Do good. Seek Christ. Enjoy the gift of life. SDG.

Prayer of Confession & Consecration

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