Daily Devotionals

'Every Day Light' with Selwyn Hughes

Devotional: September 7th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Ecclesiastes 6:7-9

If having a large family or living a thousand years does not meet the needs of the soul - then what does? Hard work perhaps? No, says cynical Solomon, not even that. Moffatt translates our text for today thus: "A man toils on to satisfy his hunger but his wants are never met." Nothing brings satisfaction to a life where God is absent, not even hard work. Psychologists talk nowadays about A-type personalities, people who are obsessed with work and see their whole identity in terms of what they do. God help us if we see our identity in terms of our accomplishments rather than in being the objects of divine love. What will happen to us when we can't work any more, can't accomplish? It's interesting that the word "appetite" in our reading today is the Hebrew word nephesh, or "soul." What it is saying is this - the soul can never be satisfied with anything less than God. And, Solomon adds, both the fools and the wise end up in the same place if they do not know God. If the soul could speak, it would say something like this: "I'm so hungry ... so thirsty ... why won't someone give me what I really long for?" And what does the soul long for? God. Far too many Christians try to make their souls work with things rather than God. When we get more satisfaction out of the things we do for God, rather than from God Himself, then we are in serious spiritual danger. Nothing fully satisfies the soul. Nothing, that is, apart from God.

O God my Father, forgive me if I seek my identity in the things I do rather than finding it in who I am. Show me even more clearly than ever that Your estimation of me is not based on my performance but on the fact that I belong to You. Amen.