Tuesday 15 Feb 2011

Tuesday Reading: Ecclesiastes 7:3

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 7:3
3  Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made better.

Devotion:
There is a time to be happy and glad but there is also a time to be sad. If we did not have feeling then we would not mourn the bad things in life and our love would not grow. Without sorrow, how can there be great joy? We live now surrounded by sorrow but with that we can know that joy is going to be so much better!

We could just laugh off bad things that happen but then we would never truly understand just how much they do affect us and how much we do not want them in our lives. Without that sadness we would not know what to avoid because we would have laughed it off the first time and would probably not avoid it the second time round. But now that we know that sadness we can strive to avoid it knowing that God has allowed us to see the pitfall that lies ahead and has given us the wisdom to avoid it the next time round.

So where am I going with this one? Simply to take life seriously... If we are not going to take life seriously then we should not expect to gain much from it. If we want to gain much from God, then we have to take Him seriously. That does mean that we have to take the good and the bad because He is allowing those things into our lives so that we can learn from them. He has already given us Christ so that we need no longer fear that He will destroy us because of our sins – so long as we have accepted Him as the truth. That was the turning point. The point that we need to take very seriously! Christ gave His life for our sins. That mean that they have been taken away and we now have a new and clean life. If we are not going to take that seriously then we are saying that His death was meaningless. That it was NOT! Our time for sorrow is at the point of realisation; thereafter we look forward with joy and love in our lives!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you feel sorrow?

How often do you look forward to joy with Christ?