Episode Details

Pray

Read: Ecc 3:9-13.

Meditation

Solomon says in verse nine that the deepest pulse of the human soul is the desire for beauty and joy and goodness. We long for it. We want to see it, and taste it, and touch it, and hear it. We want fulfillment and laughter, and wonder, and beauty, and joy. There is an insatiable, ravenous desire in every heart, longing to be satisfied with goodness and beauty. We are compelled to pursue it, and we always want more. The truth is that there is an infinite hole in our souls, constantly longing and craving to be filled with something good. That is what Solomon means when he says in verse 11, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” And nothing in this world can fill that hole.

But there is something else here as well. This desire for goodness and satisfaction is not doomed to emptiness. God made us this way. That desire for goodness, truth, and beauty is a gift from him. As verse 11 says, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” He did that for a good reason. The reason is not to deny us joy. The reason, in Christ, is to fill us. Why would he make a hole in our hearts as wide and infinite as eternity itself? There is one single reason, because he wants to fill it.

Our souls were designed to feast upon God. They were designed to be lavished with his love again and again. We were designed to be drowned and immersed and saturated and overcome by his beauty and goodness. The psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Again he says, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And the earth has nothing that I desire besides you.” God the Father, revealed through Christ by the Spirit, is our ultimate good. This is the reason he has saved us, so that he, the source and substance of all that is beautiful, God himself, will satisfy our hearts.

Have you ever noticed how much you enjoy the company of people you love, friends and family? When we enjoy dinner or conversation together, hours pass like minutes. We could just keep talking and talking. It is a delight to come to know one another more deeply. We drink in each other’s attention and delight in the connection we share. This is a small picture of what life with God is meant to be like. Knowing God is like a constant conversation. We delight in his presence. We speak with him and we listen to him. And, astonishingly, as he draws us to himself through Christ, and as he sees us as being in Christ, he delights in us.

This is why God pictures our relationship with him like the relationship between a husband and wife. In that relationship there is deep and profound intimacy and connection. There is love and nearness, and joy, and beauty, and pleasure. So it is to be with our God.

If you would gain in life, if you would find what is good, start here. Stop stressing and start trusting God. Embrace the mystery of God’s providence. You cannot work out why he has appointed everything in your life, nor should you try to. Verse 11 tells us that we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. His plan is too big for us. Solomon is saying, walk by faith. We may question God’s providence and agonise over why certain things have happened, but the truth is that we cannot and will not fathom the fullness of God’s plans. His work is eternal, as verse 14 says. It is so wide and deep and high that we can never get around it, over it, or under it. His work endures forever. No one can add to it, and no one can take away from it. God is the sovereign ruler of history. Everything that happens is sovereignly appointed by him. So do not resist it or endlessly question it. Embrace it. Live as a child trusting your Heavenly Father. He does all things well, and he makes all things beautiful in their time, even the hard things.

There are two more applications. Trusting God can sound abstract, so what does it