Our Pastor, Mike, started a sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes this past Sunday. This Sunday was chapter 1. Every week as part of the sermon he’s going to incorporate clips from popular movies.
I was excited to find out he was going to be doing a series on the book of Ecclesiastes! A friend mentioned reading it awhile ago and I never got around to doing so.
Ecclesiastes is all about answering the question: WHY AM I HERE?
The author writes: “What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? (v.3)” The phrase “under the sun” referring to people who are living without God, and so the author is writing that life is meaningless without God.
While many people who don’t know Jesus feel like life is meaningless there are just as many Christians who at some point in time have felt the same way. I know because I am one of them. I have often felt like my daily life is boring, or that what I do at work is pointless. It took me a while to truly believe that God is good.
So what really struck me from Sunday’s sermon was that life apart from God is ultimately pointless. What hit me even harder is that even with God, as a believer in Jesus Christ, life can still seem meaningless. It’s not just having Christ in your life that brings meaning and purpose but having Christ in the center of your life.
I can tell the difference in my life when I put God in the center of my life and when I push Him aside and replace God with, let’s say worry. Worry won’t do anything for me. Worry doesn’t give me purpose in life.
It’s only when I put God at the center of my life and depend on Him moment by moment that I know my life is not meaningless. Even during the hard times when life seems impossible I know that if I continue to trust in God and keep Him at the center of my life, there is purpose to it.
I’m not saying it’s always easy keep to do but it is definitely is so worth it. Jesus is our friend and as a friend he cares about us more than we can ever imagine. Listen to the sermon here.
“God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
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July 11th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Thanks Patricia! I often “feel” bogged down with the same thing every day and wonder if any of it really matters. I agree, putting God at the center is the only solution!