{"id":12821,"date":"2024-12-14T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/satchurch.lv\/?p=12821"},"modified":"2016-11-18T15:41:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T13:41:03","slug":"apart-him-true-satisfaction-happiness-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/apart-him-true-satisfaction-happiness-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Apart from Him there is no true satisfaction and happiness! II"},"content":{"rendered":"&nbsp;\r\n\r\nI welcome you, dear friends, to \u201eDaily Word for Spiritual Edification\u201d! We have been studying the Book of Ecclesiastes which describes Solomon\u2019s search for the goal and the meaning of life.\r\n\r\nAfter Solomon forsook God for a season, he tried to find happiness and satisfaction in different things and activities. We see that Solomon made several attempts which all lead to disappointment. For a wise person Solomon\u2019s experience can become good lesson in what the wrong ways to happiness are. We mentioned that Solomon sought happiness in education and knowledge, in fun and pleasures, in beauty, in works of men\u2019s hands. Afterwards he came to a conclusion that despite the fact that all these things are important and necessary for living, none of them can make us happy, if God is excluded from our life. Solomon said that everything under the sun is vanity and grasping for the wind. Solomon\u2019s conclusion was that everything that happens under the sun is vanity and grasping for the wind \u2013 if apart from God.\r\n\r\nToday we will look at some more areas of Solomon\u2019s life where he tried to find happiness and satisfaction. Many people try to do that. Let\u2019s look at the Scripture.\r\n<h6>\u00abTherefore 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\u00bb(Ecclesiastes, 2:16-17).<\/h6>\r\nI am sure that every one of us is familiar with the feeling of disappointment and frustration Solomon was talking about. He worked very hard but did not see an end to all the work he needed to accomplish daily. Life consists of work that cannot be completed. But even accomplished work and different achievements cannot bring us true happiness and fulfilment, if God is not in them. Solomon realized that different achievement cannot bring fulfilment apart from God. We know that Solomon worked hard and accomplished a lot. It says in Proverbs (13:4):\r\n<h6>\u00a0\u201eThe soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich\u201d.<\/h6>\r\nOur souls are made rich through our diligence, but on one condition \u2013 if God is present in our work.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s look at Solomon\u2019s accomplishments. Despite them Solomon said that he\r\n<h6>\u201ehated life\u201d:\u00a0\u00ab\u2026I hated life\u2026 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\u00bb.<\/h6>\r\nThe first 11 chapters of 1st\u00a0Kings recite all of Solomon\u2019s achievements. I will give you a short record of them.\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li>Solomon was extremely wealthy\u00a0(1 Kings, 4:22-28).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Solomon expanded his borders\u00a0(1 Kings, 4:21).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Solomon was famous in the whole world as an author and scholar\u00a0(1 Kings, 4:32-34).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Solomon built a\u00a0magnificent Temple &#8211; the House for the Lord (1 Kings, 6). This Temple became the world centre of beauty (1 Kings, 7).<\/li>\r\n\t<li>Many foreign kings brought gifts and tribute to Solomon\u00a0(1 Kings, 4:21).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nDespite all of this, despite his hard work and the hard work of other people, Solomon made this conclusion:\r\n<h6>\u00a0\u00abFor what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity!\u00bb\u00a0(Ecclesiastes, 2:22-23).<\/h6>\r\nMany of us would want to have a bit of what Solomon owned and had achieved. But when a person has a wrong attitude towards riches and property, then all of it brings bitterness, sorrow and anxiety instead of bringing joy and happiness. The truth is that God alone gives true joy and ability to enjoy the fruit of our labour.\r\n<h6>\u00a0\u00abHere is what I have seen: it is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor \u2013 this is the gift of God\u00bb\u00a0(Ecclesiastes, 5:17-18).<\/h6>\r\nSolomon claims that the ability to enjoy life and the fruit of one\u2019s labour is the gift of God. If we exclude God from our lives, we will never experience real enjoyment. Work in itself cannot give us any happiness. Through hard work a person can succeed in this world, but, as Solomon says, this type of success is fleeting and temporary; as soon as the person dies, his success ceases to mean anything. So it is very important to understand that there is no happiness, enjoyment and any meaning in work apart from God. So many people give too much of their time to work and overrate its significance. For some of us, work has taken the place of God. Because of work some people do not have time to fellowship with God and spend time in His Word. God\u2019s view of work is expressed in\u00a0<em>Ecclesiastes<\/em>\u00a0(2:24-25):\r\n<h6>\u00a0\u00abNothing 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 was, was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?\u00bb<\/h6>\r\nIt is a very important matter. We must clearly see that without God we are not able to enjoy work and we can neither eat nor drink. So a person is deeply mistaken, when he is caught up in projects and works and forgets about God. When our priorities are confused and God is not first in our lives, then we work against ourselves and are on the road to destruction. That is why the Old Testament commanded people to observe Sabbath; they were commanded to rest from all of their works and spend time with God.\r\n\r\nMy dear friends, God wants us to understand that there is no happiness and fulfilment in achievements and hard work, if there is no God in them, if there are not based on our relationships with Him and if there is no eternity in our hearts.\r\n\r\nWe will continue tomorrow! Be blessed!\r\n\r\nPastor Rufus Ajiboye","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today we will look at some more areas of Solomon\u2019s life where he tried to find happiness and satisfaction. Many people try to do that. Let\u2019s look at the Scripture.\r\n\r\n\u00abTherefore 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\u00bb(Ecclesiastes, 2:16-17).","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-word"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":12,"label":"Daily Word"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/pexels-photo-1166209-1024x669.jpeg",1024,669,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Pastor Rufus Ajiboye","author_link":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/author\/rufus-ajiboye\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":12,"name":"Daily Word","slug":"daily-word","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":12,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Daily word for spiritual strength","parent":0,"count":650,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":12,"category_count":650,"category_description":"Daily word for spiritual strength","cat_name":"Daily Word","category_nicename":"daily-word","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38928,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821\/revisions\/38928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/satchurch.lv\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}