"For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and
knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and
to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also
is vanity and vexation of spirit." Ecclesiastics. 2:26.
The
greatest miracle that can happen to anyone in life is to find God's
purpose and true essence of living. And until you find it, no matter how
blessed, endowed and highly exalted you may appear to be, you will
continue to live in gloom, travail, uncertainty and hopelessness. That
is why it is important to pay a careful attention to the elders who are
far ahead of you in understanding and had a perfect knowledge and
experience of the journey you want to embark upon so as to glean
necessary lessons needed to smooth your journey from their life.
Every new discoveries and inventions are just an improvement and
advancement upon the project of some individuals in some time past,
there is no new thing under heaven. They set the pace and we are just
advancing on it.
I was meditating in the bible from the book of
Ecclesiastes chapter two (Ecclesiastes. 2) how the writer made a summary
of all his life. He was the wealthiest and the wisest man in the old
testament. He led the kingdom of Israel and Judah through a peaceful and
most prosperous period by virtue of his wisdom. He attracted so much
fame and fortunes from all works of life and advanced his kingdom. Out
of this rare privilege, he was able to afford any luxurious and affluent
life any man can desire. There was no man compared to king Solomon in
his days. Every kings from all corners of the world were craving to meet
with Solomon and tap from the wealth of his wisdom to enrich and
advance their kingdom. There is no kingdom and throne ever decorated
craftily and ostentatiously like Solomon, and the wisdom of his
administration was quite inexplicable so much that it transcended and
demanded that every class of kings and kingdoms around the world needs
to pay homage to Solomon to improve their lot. He was the most prominent
man at that time and his kingdom was the world superpower.
Upon
all the wisdom, wealth, and fortune that grace King Solomon's day, his
quest for true happiness and satisfaction was not relinquished, and with
that was pain, travail, and tumult. There is a hole in his heart that his
affluence can not bridge. Everything that naturally would have brought
him joy, satisfaction and fulfillment ended in vanity and vexation of
spirit.
This however is the correct state of the heart of every
man who has not met with the person of Jesus Christ. No matter who you
are and what you are up to, there can never be an end to your quest for
world and its Glamour, neither can you have peace, joy and sense of fulfillment.
This reminded me the genesis of creation and its relevance to our individual life in relation to this piece of admonition.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth
was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Genesis.
1:1-2.
The mystery here is the statement that opened the
immediate highlighted scripture above, saying: "in the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth..." Even though the earth was
formless, dark, empty and void, yet it was God's make up. That is why
you wonder sometimes why God allows your life to go the way it does--
tragic, confusing, and in disarray, despite your academic
qualifications, affluence and position. This is owing to the fact that
those factors don't atone for the position of Christ in man's life.
Man has lost the source of Joy and satisfaction in the garden of Eden
through the first Adam's rebellion and has been in search of this
generation after generations without been able to fix it until the
emergence of the second Adam, which is Jesus Christ.
What was
lost from the beginning and subjected man's years and labor into
travail, vanity and vexation of spirit is what was mentioned immediately
after the period of formlessness, void, and darkness in the beginning
of creation.
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
The Spirit of God is the spirit of truth and holiness, He doesn't
tolerate any forms of impurity. He has been in the world right from
creation, and the only thing that added meaning to life. He was the one
that inspired the first Adam in the garden of Eden to perform
excellently and tend the beautiful garden. By Him was Adam named all
God's creatures, until iniquity was found in him and lost this supreme
being(Holy Spirit).
Immediately the Holy Spirit departed from
man, man was subjected to cursing and doom and all his years was spent
in travail, pain, vanity and vexation of spirit. What would have been a
blessing and joy becomes vanity because the real source of joy was not
in it. Man began to run a rat race and becomes discontent in his clamor
for joy and satisfaction. And as a matter of fact came up with a theory
that says, humans want are insatiable. Yes, it is insatiable because of
the absence of the real joy and hope. One of the benefits derivable from
the Holy Spirit, and the evidences observable from every true
recipients of it is contentment. You can't find that in the world, it is
only available in the dictionary of God.
This is the only
omission that rendered all the achievements and blessedness of king
Solomon a vanity and vexation of spirit. He lacks the Holy Spirit. That
is the hole in his heart which his prosperity and wisdom could not bridge.
It baffles me when I read some quotes like: "Education is the best
legacy." And in this essence referring to academic knowledge in the
secular fields. I am not ruling out the importance of secular education,
either formal or informal, but If this is to be the best legacy and
the major priority, a place like my country-Nigeria would have been one
of the best place on the planet (earth), as it is currently rated one of
the educated in the world, and that Nigeria has one of the highest paid
salary earners in the United States, following their statistics. But
upon all the academic status of majority of Nigerian elites, the nation
is still backward on every wise and the rate of poverty, corruption and sociology-vises is at an alarming degree. Darkness, formlessness and void
still becloud our political, judicial, economic, and governmental set
ups. Our politicians and men in the corridors of power are eating and
embezzling the national cake without being satisfied. They loot the
treasury and virtually draw the national prosperity to their individual
pockets and still questing for more. It is an evidence that they are
living in eternal poverty, vanity and vexation of spirit.
When
you see a political appointees running from pillar to post to seek
reelection and appeasing the favor of some godfathers, it is from all
indications implies that such has some personal benefits to derive and
not in the interest of the masses to whom he was appointed.
In
other words, when the Spirit of God is lacking in the life of a man,
bitterness, confusion, hopelessness, gloom, and dissatisfaction will
begin to rule his life. All of his years will be full of doom and
dissipated away in the air of time. And unfortunately will face a Christ-less eternity where his misfortune continues. That is why Jesus
asked, saying, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and
loses his soul, or would he give in exchange. Nothing can atone for the
Holy spirit and His significance to our eternal destiny. It is so
expensive that the riches of the world put together can not buy. It is
that too expensive for any world's currency to buy that it took only the
atoning and precious blood of Jesus Christ to purchase.
However,
the emergence of Jesus Christ, the second Adam has brought an end to
this vanity and vexation of spirit that has long loomed our prosperity
through His death and resurrection for anyone that can accept Him as his
personal Lord and Savior. It is through Jesus Christ you can gain
access to the Holy Spirit the missing hole in your life. He is the giver
of the Holy Spirit. It is at Calvary you can receive the currency of
grace with which you can purchase the life that comes from the Holy
Spirit and give meaning to your life, possessions and existence.
The man that attempted to buy the grace and the gift of God with human
currency was cursed, that is, Simon the sorcerer. The bible says, he
placed demand on the grace and gift of God with money, and Peter said
unto him, that your money perished with you.
Jesus is the only
option to have eternal satisfaction, joy and fulfillment your heart
desires. You can't manage to continually be at rival with Him, otherwise
you will keep prolonging your days of doom and gloom and die an eternal
death. It is the Holy Spirit derivable from Christ that quickens your
mortal body and enable you to channel your resources and prosperity to
suit the purpose and desire of God.
Every good and perfect gift
is from God, whether in material or endowment, and is for a purpose. But
when you lack the Holy Spirit, you will become a waster of those
resources, because there will be no direction and proper instructions to
fulfill the desire of God for your life with your possessions. You
won't be able to harness your gifts to suit the purpose and intent of
God and thereby crediting your eternal account; you will continue to
suit your own purpose and render your possessions a vanity.
Nevertheless, when you use your gift to suit the purpose of God as you
are led by the Holy Spirit, the first evidence you will observe is
peace, satisfaction, and joy unspeakable.
This is the more reason Jesus told the Samaritan woman, that, if she give her water to
drink from her pot, He will give her a well of water that will spring
from her bowel or belly and she will no more be thirsty.
Nothing
in this world satisfies, no matter how abounding you are with it, you
will still be craving for more, regardless of your race, tribe, culture,
color, academic and social status....the only thing that can help you
to be satisfied with whatever you have is the the Spring of joy that
only Jesus can give you which is the Holy Spirit. He will give you
assurance of eternal hope and encourage you to be contented with what
you have.
Beloved, are you weary of this worldly competition that
doesn't give you assurance of eternal life? Do you desire a fulfilled
life on earth and continue the rest of your life in eternal glory? Do
you want to face eternity with joy and gladness and a full sense of
fulfillment? Then you need to surrender your life to Jesus Christ. It
doesn't matter how long you have been in the Church, the only way out of
this travail, vanity and vexation of spirit is to embrace the labor of
the cross and obtain the grace with which you can gain access to the
spring of life and earn your labor and good works a reward in eternity.
May the Lord accept you and bless you as you are making a decision for Jesus Christ today in Jesus name.
Hymn:
Jesus my cross have I taken All to leave and follows thee: destitute, despised, and forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be: perish every fond ambition, All I've sought, or hoped, or known; yet how rich is my condition God and heaven are still my own.
Man may trouble and distress me; I will but drive me to thy breast; life with trials hard may press me ; Heaven will bring me sweeter rest; Oh, 'tis not in grief to harm me, While thy love is left to me: Oh 'twere not in joy to charm me, Were that joy unmix'd with Thee.
Take, my soul, Thy full salvation: Rise o'er sin, and fear, and care; Joy to find in every situation Something still to do or bear; Think what Spirit dwells within thee; what a Father's smile is thine; What a Savior died to win thee; Child of heaven, should'st thou repine?
Good day and
