Book of Regrets, Day 9 Hope. Such a powerful thing. Read Ecclesiastes 9. While we live, we have hope. We can effect change. We can influence our surroundings. We can even increase our love and praise of God. Once we have died, we are then in a position of receiving the reward (or punishment) of our decisions about Jesus Christ while we lived. But, while we live, we can still make changes, improvements, updates, even turn our life completely around. Did you wake up this morning? Then you are in a position to make change and impact. Are you breathing? Then you can create influence and praise of God. God…

Book of Regrets, Day 8 Life isn’t fair. Read Ecclesiastes 8. We so often see and experience situations where bad things happen to seemingly good people and those people with bad intent seem to have everything work out their way. In reality, while it may seem profoundly unfair to us, God understands and he is the one who determines what “fair” truly is. He is the definition of fair and just. Are we open to recognizing that even when we don’t understand, He does? Life, home, work, none of these are fair. God is fair and the question really becomes whether or not we will trust him, even when it…

Book of Regrets, Day 7 Words of wisdom. Read Ecclesiastes 7. God brings us through so many paths in life. We may feel we should be on another path, an easier path, a straighter path. Yet, when we follow Christ, the path may be very crooked and difficult. Are we busy following God or are we busy fighting against his path. We don’t always know why we are on the path we are on. God has a purpose and a plan. Will we trust in his plan?

Book of Regrets, Day 6 Where does meaning come from? Read Ecclesiastes 6. When we think about what gives our life meaning, we can go through many things in our mind. However, we often end up thinking that we gain meaning to our life through what we say and how we say it and who we say it to. Yet, our words do not give life meaning. And sometimes, they can distract us from the actual meaning. Solomon had seen many instances where people would talk and talk just to hear themselves talk or to try and sound important. Our words should be measured and used when they are effective…

Book of Regrets, Day 5 Guess what? You aren’t God. Read Ecclesiastes 5. Well most of us know that we’re not God and have no issue with that. However, even though we may know we are not God, we act like we are God. We act like we are God of our own life and that we are God of our own decisions and we work under the assumption that other people should be in the business of giving us exactly what we want. As Solomon writes this chapter, he is reminding us that we need to remember our place. We need to remember who we are and where we…

Book of Regrets, Day 4 What does it take to be wise? Read Ecclesiastes 4. As Solomon continues his sermon, we see him discuss the value of wisdom. As he’s looking at his situation and all that he sees around him, he realizes that it is possible to be old and wise and yet not be wise at all. Sometimes people become so set in their ways that they lose the ability to trust in the Lord. As we get older, we become more reliant on ourselves and our experience and self taught wisdom then we are reliant on God. Sometimes, we need something new and young and fresh to…

Book of Regrets, Day 3 A time for everything. Read Ecclesiastes 3. This chapter is one of the most famous from the book of Ecclesiastes. There is a time for everything. Yet, just reading those first 10 verses without understanding verse 11 will result in you missing the point. Yes, there are times for all these things. But, God is the one that gives all these activities purpose and meaning. God makes them beautiful. Do we allow God to work to make all things beautiful? Are we following his timeline for all these events? God is the one who gives purpose. God makes all things beautiful in his time.

Book of Regrets, Day 2 What do the things that Solomon was regretting? Read Ecclesiastes 2. This chapter lists many of the things that Solomon had been focusing his energy and time on throughout his life. Now he realized that everything he had been doing wasn’t worth anything. It was meaningless. When we look at all that we have been working on and working toward in our lives, are we doing things that matter? Are we focusing on eternally minded things? If we were to look back on these areas, would we feel joy or regret? How can we get focused on doing the things of Christ?