Your tomorrow is the outcome of your today´s efforts and time you spend. Your today impacts your tomorrow, therefore, you better prepare yourself for tomorrow, use your time to develop yourself, building up your character and skills. If you disobey God today, you will not be able to enter your promised land tomorrow, due to the cruelty of your heart. If you take care for today, God will take care for your tomorrow then.
In reality, effective life is impossible without appropriate preparation. Jesus solved the question of effectiveness by preparing Himself for the ministry. There is almost no information about what Jesus had been doing during the first 30 years of His life. Gospels tell us the story about His ministry. Meanwhile, we need to understand that prior to starting His ministry Jesus had been seriously preparing himself for quite a long time.
Yesterday we started talking about God’s desire to demonstrate His glory and fullness in our lives; for this to happen we have to prepare our hearts and to prepare the way of the Lord. We have to cleanse our hearts from the things that God hates and cannot look upon.
The following verses from the Scripture reveal the principle of preparation the way of the Lord.
«In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’”» (Mathew, 3:1-3).
God has a way. He does not force Himself on people; He is the God of order. Until there will be a way prepared for God, He won’t come. Many of us would like for God to come, but He does not come without proper preparation. God goes where people are ready for His visitation. And when God comes, then all barriers are cast aside, the desert starts blooming, the mountains and hills are brought down, the valleys will be filled, the crooked places are made straight and the rough places are made smooth. God can show us the great picture of what He wants to do among us and through us as His people or the Church. But it will take a serious preparation and it will require of us to be very responsible.
It means obeying His commandments, knowing who is the real Boss on the top of everything. Fearing God means the acknowledgement of His strength, His magnificence, His power, His holiness and therefore, respect and honour Him.
Fear of God is a kind of salubrious fear, not a kind of phobia people needing a psychiatric treatment have. Fearing God we understand that He is going to judge us for our sins and it impacts our deeds.
We will continue about Solomon’s search for happiness, satisfaction and the meaning of life. We have already discussed that in the beginning of his life Solomon sought God and loved him, and God gave him wisdom and riches, happiness and fulfilment in life. But Solomon got caught up with superficial things of this world and started to follow other gods. Solomon started seeking for happiness and satisfaction in things and activities. He found only disappointment in them and then he turned back to his beginning.
The story of Solomon is a lesson to all of us; it tells us that the meaning of life, happiness and satisfaction cannot be found anywhere but in God alone. So we need to develop and strengthen personal relationships with God.
Today we will look at some more areas of Solomon’s life where he tried to find happiness and satisfaction. Many people try to do that. Let’s look at the Scripture.
«Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me»(Ecclesiastes, 2:16-17).
«There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death» (Proverbs, 16:25). A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. I believe that this message will help us stop and not take the wrong path, since it won’t give us any fulfilment.
Yesterday we discussed the fact that Solomon tried to find happiness and satisfaction in pleasures of life. He realized that all these things are vanity and „grasping for the wind”. We saw the things Solomon sought as the source of enjoyment. First, he tried different delicacies. They brought satisfaction to Solomon’s body, but he soul remained empty and hungry.
We have been talking about search for the meaning of life. We are using the life of Solomon, the son of David as our example. Solomon was the wisest person on earth. We saw that in the beginning of his life Solomon obtained wisdom and riches, because he loved God and knew Him. But there came a time in his life, when he forsook God and followed other gods. At that time Solomon tried to satisfy his soul with different things; he looked for happiness in different places. Eventually, Solomon realized that it is impossible to be happy and satisfied in this life without God.
Let’s look at the steps that Solomon took in order to find the meaning of life. We will see what conclusions Solomon came to. The first thing Solomon turned to was acquiring of wisdom and knowledge. «I communed with my heart, saying, „Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.” And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow» (Ecclesiastes, 1:16-18).
