Are You Focusing on What Matters? Reminders from Ecclesiastes: The Bible in Lent Day 20

Today, we’ve officially made it halfway through The Bible in Lent! How fortuitous that this week finds us taking a break from the narrative books and focusing on the wisdom literature. It feels like a pause, an opportunity to step back and focus both the whole of life and our individual lives. To remember what we’ve read so far and see some of the practical application in our daily lives.

Ecclesiastes is a book that specifically caused me to pause and take stock in my life. I pondered how I’m spending my time and which things I’m allowing my mind to worry about during the day.

Am I spending my time as a daughter of God who knows that He has already ordained and is in control of all that will happen (3:14-15)? Am I allowing myself to worry about the tomorrow or am I content with the manna for today?

This book reminds me that everything has a season.

Hard seasons? They won’t endure forever. Eventually, a new day will break and the tides will shift.

As one of my favorite songs, “The Dark Before the Dawn,” reminds me – the wind can be frightening but the same wind will eventually blow the storm itself away.

But this portion of the Bible also reminds me that on this Earth, the earthly good won’t last. Loved ones will die. Wealth we will leave behind.

The very end of the book was a call to perspective.

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

At the end of our days, all of our deeds will be brought to light, both the good and the bad.

While there may be inequalities now, while the righteous may suffer and those who flaunt their dark deeds prosper, that is not the final say.

We can trust that God will bring everything into His perfect justice. We can find rest in doing our whole duty, fearing God and keeping His commandments, and know that He is good and will make everything beautiful in its proper time.

So today, let us offer up our work, enjoying the tasks God has given us, but trusting that ultimately, our hope is not in the here and now but in His never-changing character and grace.