The Life Focused on Self - Day 237 Through the Bible

Migration of the Monarch through Celo this week to its wintering place in Michoacán, México.

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

(Ellipses are Mine and are used for contemplation.)

The Life Focused on Self - Ecclesiastes 1 and 2  (What It Says - Summarized) - The words "I, me, myself, my, mine" dominate these first 2 chapters - "I set my heart to seek and search out wisdom...I attained...I communed with my heart...I have seen all...I said in my heart...how to gratify my flesh...while guiding my heart with wisdom...I made my works great...I  built myself houses...planted myself vineyards...made myself gardent...made myself water pools...I acquired...I had greater possessions...I gathered myself silver and gold...I became great and excelled more than all...my wisdom remained...whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them...I did not withhold my heart from pleasure...I turned myself to consider...I myself perceived...Therefore I hated life...Then I hated all my labors in which I had toiled...because I must leave it to the man who will come after me...yet he will rule over all my labor...in which I have toiled...in which I have shown myself wise...therefore I turned my heart and despaired...Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.  This also, I saw was from the hand of God.  For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment more that I?  For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting that he may give to him who is good before God.  This also is vanity and grasping the wind."

My Lessons and Applications - This is the result of the narcissistic and solipsistic soul whose focus is on self, on what he only has done - himself - without the aid of others or God. When he gets around to finally acknowledging God's Hand in wisdom and knowledge, he calls it vanity...grasping the wind.  He discounts and devalues building for the next generation and calls it "vanity and a great evil" that his work must go to the one who follows him.  This will be his son.  Recall how David gathered great and wonderful supplies and planned in detail for the temple that God had said only this son, Solomon, could build.  David, "a man after God's own heart", did not view this legacy as evil or vane.  Solomon admits to his great retinue of servants and slaves, but does not acknowledge that they did the work.  He credits all the work and labor to himself. The result is he hates life, sees the work as "distressing, sorrowful, burdensome, vane, of no profit, dissatisfying, nothing new, grievous - a grasping after wind."  This is a man who has forgotten God, who no longer walks with God, who has made himself a god.  When I get weighed down by the seeming meaninglessness of life, of how the evil, godless person seems to prosper, do I remember to refocus - to turn my eyes back to Jesus, back on God's Word, on His Plan?  Do I remember that this is not all about me, about my happiness, but about God and life with Him, in obedience to Him - now and through eternity?

A Prayer for When You are Overwhelmed and Afflicted - Psalm 102

Life Focused on God and His Calling- 1 Corinthians 7:20-40 (What It Says - Summarized) - The early church at Corinth is under distress - persecution.  Paul warns these believers that those who choose to marry "will have trouble in the flesh, but I would spare you...I want you to be without care...he who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord - how he may please the Lord...but he who is married cares about the things of the world - how he may please his wife."  Slaves are encouraged to remember that while slaves to man, they are "the Lord's freedman", and those who are free when called are "Christ's slave."  Whether married, single, slave, or free Paul says, "Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called."  The apostle speaks to the remarriage of a woman - "she is bound to her husband until he dies but at liberty to be remarried to whom she wishes...only in the Lord...but she is happier if she remains as she is", according to Paul's apostolic authority, and he adds, "I think I also have the Spirit of God."

Lessons and Applications - Paul is warning the believers in the church at Corinth to maintain their focus on God regardless of their station in life.  Do I remember this - that whether in plenty or lack, whether married or single, whether in persecution or peace - I am to maintain my calling, my faith, my walk with God, my service to Him?

Our comfort and happiness depend on what we are to Christ, not what we are in the world. The goodness of our outward condition does not discharge us from the duties of Christianity, nor the badness of it debar us from Christian privileges...No man should make his faith or religion an argument to break through any natural or civil obligations. He should quietly and comfortably abide in the condition in which he is; and this he may well do, when he may abide therein with God. The special presence and favour of God are not limited to any outward condition or performance.

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible