Fri.’s Devo - Chasing The Wind

Read: Ecclesiastes 1:1-3:22; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; Psalm 46:1-11; Proverbs 22:15 Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon in his old age. In his time, people would meet to hear the philosophy of great wise men, Solomon being the greatest. In these yearly meetings, Solomon gave his philosophy found in Ecclesiastes. It is divided into six parts so he could have given a different part every year. Proverbs was written when Solomon was young and walking close to the Lord, Ecclesiastes was written after he had married many women and lived a life of wealth, paganism and selfishness. Ecclesiastes is his summary of what he learned from life lessons. We read today that Solomon felt most of his life was full of meaningless things he referred to as ‘chasing after the wind’. He describes the sun chasing itself around the earth, the wind chasing itself, the rivers running and people chasing after anything new. Everything was running and chasing itself. We call that the “rat race” - a hamster on a wheel. Solomon admits that he was the greatest chaser. He chased wisdom, knowledge, foolishness, happiness, achievements, wealth, women, pleasure, and hard work. He summed it all up with the word ‘meaningless’ - a chasing after the wind. The only satisfaction that Solomon found was to realize that pleasures are from the hand of God who gives them out as he wishes. God works in seasons and everyone finds themself in one of God’s seasons which change all though our lives. Sometimes we are in the season of planting and sometimes we are in the season of reaping. The wisdom is to find out what season you are in and bloom there. Chances are, your season will not last long, so you learn what you need to learn during that season to prepare you for the nest season. Solomon says that God has made everything beautiful for its own time. That means that in every season, God has something beautiful for us to learn about him and about his ways. Since God has put eternity in the human heart, we can be happy no matter what we are going through because we understand that this is not our eternal home and we are living for a much greater purpose and reward. Paul says exactly the same thing to his followers in Corinth. He describes the trials of his life and explains how he can patiently endure. He is not living for today, but eternity. Paul doesn’t have to depend upon his wisdom and understanding like Solomon, Paul has the Holy Spirit who empowers him to keep going and preaching the truth. The Holy Spirit is truly a gift from Jesus to be our helper. Lord, thank you for the Holy Spirit, our constant companion. May we walk in your wisdom and your power. Thank you for the changes of our lives, may we flourish in every season.