September 22
________________________________________
ECCLESIASTES 7
21 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.23 All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. 24 That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? 25 I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. 26 And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. 27 Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things— 28 which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
– Ecclesiastes 7:21-29
________________________________________
ECCLESIASTES 7 PLEASING GOD BREAKS BONDAGES & SNARES
A poem inspired by these verses by ILMA
When God made mankind, he designed them to be upright like him
Man was created to be in relationship with God and bring him glory
But evil came into the picture that enticed man to be wicked instead
Since the fall, our uprightness was compromised and we easily rebelled.
Human nature became evil that we broke off our relationship with the Lord
This broken relationship brought forth God’s wrath to the world
But God loved us so much that he solved man’s unrighteousness
He sent his own Son for the appeasement of his anger over our wickedness.
Man tends to follow his nature but in Christ, he can once again please God
To fear the Lord instead of giving in to our sinful nature is the way out
Stop pleasing yourself. Instead, please the Lord and hell’s door will be shut down
It will break all bondages to rebel and be sinful if you cling to Jesus.
________________________________________
REFLECTION
• In verse 29, Solomon reminds us of the original design of humans by God, why does mankind desperately want to change that design?