June 6

“There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesias-tes 3:1). “God has made everything beautiful for it’s own time” (3:11a). In other words, there is a time in every human’s life to seek pleasure, to have a good time, and enjoy the company of one’s friends. Within the context of marriage, there is a time for a husband and a wife to enjoy sexual pleasure with one another. There is also a time for study, a time to learn and broaden our minds by increasing our knowledge. There is also a time for building, a time for using one’s hands to construct or expand a house or anything else that might benefit society. There is a time for work. Work, in and of itself, is not evil. Quite the contrary, there are many people who find work to be quite enjoyable. There is also a time for physical exercise, since we can best accomplish that which God has created us to do, when we take care of our physical bodies (I Timothy 4:8). But, none of these things, or anything else for that matter, will bring us the spiritual satisfaction we are looking for. None of these pursuits, by itself, will bring us the contentment we are seeking.
There is one who could honestly say, “I had everything a man could desire!” (2:8). “Anything I wanted, I took. I did not restrain myself from any joy. I even found great pleasure in hard work” (2:10). “BUT, as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere” (2:11). It’s unfortunate that we can’t all simply learn from the advice and the experience of those who have gone before us. It’s sad when someone who has acquired the very things many of us find ourselves pursuing, tells us those things and those accomplishments didn’t bring them happiness. Why don’t we learn from their experiences? We assume they didn’t know what they were doing. We think that what we are doing is different than what they did.
“God has planted eternity in the human heart” (3:11). God has placed within every-one of us a desire to know Him and only God can satisfy that longing. So, while “there is a time for everything”, everything must be enjoyed in it’s context and for a season. Nothing else, and no one else, has the power to bring us what we are looking for, except God. The Bible has promised that, “if we seek Him, we will find Him if we seek with all of our heart” (Matthew 7:7; Hebrews 11:6). What are you pursuing in life? Maybe the better question is, who are you pursuing in life?