Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
--Ecclesiastes 12:13
We live in a world today that’s been captured by the theory of relativism, the theory or idea that says you can’t firmly or finally say what is right or wrong. So the very idea of a rule or a “commandment” flies in the face of what most people in our world today believe.
But God gave us his commandments not to restrict us, but to protect us. Why? So that we will live well upon the earth. You and I have a loving heavenly Father who wants to protect us from the very things that will harm us and ultimately destroy us.
Think about Solomon. God says he was the wisest man who ever lived. Yet he had to learn the importance of this truth the hard way.
If you look at Solomon’s life, you find that he was a great king. He had everything going for him, including enormous wealth and power. Yet he took what God gave him and he abused it.
As Solomon shares in the book of Ecclesiastes, he threw away his money buying everything he wanted. He had numerous wives so he could have sex any time he desired. Solomon did anything and everything he wanted to do.
He didn’t let himself be limited by the commandments of God! Yet where did it get him?
When Solomon looked back on his life, he said, “I’m a loser. My life has added up to a big fat zero!” That’s why his parting words at the end of Ecclesiastes are, “Fear God and keep his commandments….” Solomon learned life’s lesson that if you break God’s commands, you will be broken on them.
This is a lesson I pray you and I will keep at the front of our minds so we don’t have to learn it the hard way like Solomon did.
YOU HAVE A LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER WHO WANTS TO PROTECT YOU FROM THE VERY THINGS THAT WILL HARM YOU.
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place. But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.”
Luke 9:12–14
A Christian businessman named Wallace Speers told of a strange encounter he had on the street one day. A young man who was unshaved and disheveled stopped him and said, “You look like a friendly man. Will you do something for me? There is no one in the world who cares if I live or die. Will you just think about me for a while? If I could believe someone was thinking about me as a human being it would mean more to me than money or anything.” In a moment he melted back into the crowd and was gone. Speers said later, “I’ve been haunted by that man’s loneliness ever since.”
All around us there are people in urgent need of help and hope. Yet sometimes, like the disciples who saw the massive crowd, we view people as a source of annoyance and frustration. We want them to just go away rather than having to deal with helping them. But the heart of Jesus was filled with compassion for the needs of the people, and He was willing to do whatever He could to meet those needs. The difference between Jesus and the disciples was not the need, but the way they viewed the people with the need.
Today’s Growth Principle:
If we are to be like Jesus, we must care for the needs of others rather than regarding them as frustrations.
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