”Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.“
Ecclesiastes 11:9 ESV
There’s a restlessness that stalks us. It’s that low hum in the background of our lives; an unease and unsettled nature of the heart. It ought not to be and the passage before us tells us why. In plain language too. That’s the special beauty of Ecclesiastes. It states bluntly and yet poignantly the plain and bare truths that we suppress for various reasons.
The days of our lives are all watched over by the sovereign God. This is the elemental fact of things. And yet, despite how obvious this is, we obsess about life’s trivial things rather than eternal things. Isn’t that amazing? After all, the God who parted the Red Sea and raised Jesus from the dead can certainly handle our daily affairs, can’t He? The primary focus of this passage is clear: obey the Lord by living in faith. That’s it (Romans 1:5). That’s the “big goal” of life, the fundamental thing that brings focus, unity, and meaning to everything else. To seek first the Lord and His Kingdom (Matthew 6:33) is to truly live wisely.
The question of what is the Lord’s will for our life is rather easily answered in the main. Believe on the One – Jesus – whom God sent (John 6:29). The will of God for our lives is that we be saved (John 3:16) by faith in Christ alone and then live unhesitatingly upon this faith (Romans 1:17). Now, obviously, all of us wonder how exactly we’re supposed to live this life of faith. Glad you asked…the Preacher answers it. And easily. Ready?
Believe in Christ and then rejoice in your life and opportunities, giving thanks to God in all that you do. And what should you do?
Whatever you want.
Ah…I know…I know…we need a lot of Scriptural support for so bold a proclamation as that, right? Well, not to be condescending but it’s right here. Walk in the ways of your heart and sight of your eyes presupposes that those eyes and that heart are set in faith, not the flesh. We aren’t talking about sin. That’s abundantly clear. The way of one’s heart isn’t in adultery when it’s set on Christ. We’re talking about the loving fidelity to the principles of Scripture, not walking in the flesh. When we delight ourselves in God and His word-law, He gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4)! When our treasure is truly in Him, He will make straight our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). It’s that simple…it’s just that simple doesn’t mean easy. Simplicity of theory doesn’t mean ease of practice; in fact, it’s the simple things that are hard and the evil that’s easy.
It’s easy to covet, to lust, and to harbor animosity in our hearts. It’s a hard path – that is, the way is narrow – that is contentment with godliness and love of neighbor in all circumstances. To desire pleasing the Lord regardless of our situation, win or lose, triumph or sorrow, height or depth, is the high stuff of faith. To complain is easy; to praise is hard. To grumble is natural; to pray humbly for deliverance while yielding to His will, is so hard as to be literally supernatural! It takes the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts to walk in righteousness. It’s easy to quarrel; to love takes setting our sights always on Christ and to see Him in others too.
Our issue is that the ways of righteousness are clearly spelled out in Scripture but we don’t like the hard-driving simplicity of it. We desire, in the flesh, deliverance from circumstantial worry and life’s daily burdens. Solomon asked for wisdom from the Lord instead of the life of his enemies and yet we don’t follow suit. Instead of seeking God’s will most of all and to be transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we walk in love, we too often use our Bibles to walk in judgmentalism and bitterness. Those dastardly Democrats! That darn neighbor! That horrible boss! The whole world is going to the hot place!
Instead of a broken heart that pleads with God for the lost, achingly beseeching Him to give us opportunities to extol His love and mercy to sinners, we spend time angrily reading the news. Personally, I often found myself speaking more of what bothered me than what blessed me. It’s through the work of the Holy Spirit, through the submissive reading of His holy word, that I learned more and more the heart of Christ for all. To pray for our enemies is a supernatural gift! To bless those who persecute us is possible only to the broken and contrite heart that knows so very well how much it owes the Lord.
This is the type of wisdom that Solomon prayed for and that we should copy. To think that developing the heart of Christ through the ordinary means of the faith (prayer, worship, sacraments, and Bible study) isn’t the path of blessing is a common error. But this error throws life upside down and inside out. It leaves us unchanged in spirit, thinking that our material circumstances are the key thing rather than knowing and loving the Lord. It leaves us living as if this is still our world – a humanistic one – rather than our Father’s world. To see God preeminent in all things, sovereign over all, changes everything. And this is the change we all so desperately need.
Let’s walk through this.
Not sure what you should do?
Repent of your sin, turn utterly away from it and from relying on your own theories of life, and trust solely in God and His word-law. Trust in Christ alone for your salvation and pray to truly know and follow Him!
Okay, but then what?
Well, what do you want to do…and what do you have to do?
Now that you’re right with God, loving Him with all your heart, love your neighbor too. That means doing something productive so that you have the means of sharing (charity) and trading (vocation). A person who loves their neighbor neither owes them anything, nor expects them to provide for them (Ephesians 4:28). Socially speaking, a life of love is a life of humble and disciplined productivity. It’s another way of saying, get a job. And do it well, in the Lord, with all the talent and opportunity He’s given. It’s not your status or worldly success that’s the issue but the faith and love and hope in which you work/live. Do it in love…no matter what it is. It’s like this – simple that it is – that Christianity and Christians change the world.
Simple, not easy.
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