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WITHOUT GOD I CAN DO NOTHING
Without God, we are powerless, defenseless, and helpless. God adopted us and became our Father, giving us the ability to grow in our desire to serve him, and the power to serve him. In order to do this, we need to fully submit to his direction in life.
Know: Salvation is not an "object," but a restored relationship with God. It is a
relationship we need to invest in or we may wander away from God
Feel: A desire to grow closer to God, and a sense of gratitude for what he gave to make our relationship with him possible
Do: Reflect on God's part in your relationship to him. Evaluate how your attitude of dependence or independence in God is reflected in your actions. Formulate a plan from which to draw inner strength from God instead of from something else.
“Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless,” said the wisest man ever. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon expressed this conviction around 35 times. “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Ecclesiastes, Solomon’s written sermon, analyzes life’s experiences with a theme that all of life is meaningless, hollow and fruitless if it isn’t rightly related to God.
Solomon opined that life without God has no purpose or hope; man’s worth comes only from the Lord. People apart from God unsuccessfully search for fulfillment and enjoyment to calm their restlessness and compensate for their spiritual emptiness.
Solomon claimed to have followed all of his whimsical passions only to realize that it was like “chasing after the wind” (Chapter 2). He affirmed that without the Lord, nothing could satisfy man (2:25), for true satisfaction comes from knowing God’s purpose for our lives and living it. How interesting that this came from a powerful king who had great wealth, wisdom, respect, and everything he could want on earth. Have you been searching for contentment and fulfillment apart from God?
Ecclesiastes’ somewhat cynical chapters contain gold nuggets of wisdom. One that captured my attention was, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (3:11). God has created in us a yearning for the kind of perfect world that existed before sin entered it. Injustice, wickedness, and sickness affecting us increases this yearning and causes believers to look forward to their promised paradise after death.
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