August 20–Wisdom of Solomon

Good Monday morning! I hope you had a great weekend and took the time to enjoy worship with fellow believers. I was reading through Ecclesiastes chapter seven and was once again struck by the wisdom packed into one small chapter. 


I thought maybe a great way to start off a new week would be to make note of a few of these. 


“A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time...Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool...Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride...Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God...Remember that nothing is certain in this life. I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people ...I have always tried my best to let wisdom guide my thoughts and actions. I said to myself, “I am determined to be wise.” But it didn’t work...But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.””

‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭7:4,5, 8, 14, 15, 23, 29‬ ‭NLT‬‬


It is better to finish than start! How many little projects have I started that never saw completion. Yet those I have finished left a wonderful feeling of accomplishing what I’d set out to do. 


The wisdom of Solomon. As I read through the self reflexion of the great, wise king, I realize once again that there truly is nothing new under the sun. Prosperity will come but so will hard times. It’s ok for a wise person to give you advice and criticism. it’s much better to fix your situation, than to hear from others (and listen to them) how great we are.


The king struggled with using his wisdom to be virtuous, yet the wisest man to ever live was not able to accomplish that small feat. It’s simply not possible to be virtuous without the guidance of Holy Spirit. Otherwise, as he says to us, we will just follow our own downward path. 


He also wanted us to know, we need to think about our death and realize that 

Nothing is certain in this life. We do t really want to dwell on it, but what I think he’s getting to is to know we have mad our “arrangements” with the King of Kings. For as James reminds us, it is but a vapor, like the morning fog.  


Dear God, that’ll you for the wisdom of Solomon and what it can bring to our lives. Remind us once again that nothing in this life is guaranteed and our own wisdom will never make our lives truly Kingdom ready. Thank you for the Holy Spirit’s guidance to live lives worthy of you, for you are holy and only good. We praise you for who you are and we sing hallelujah to our King. We worship at your feet today and ask for wisdom born of the Spirit. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one, 

Pam

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