Ecclesiastes: Chapter 7: 13-29

Chapter 7: 13-29: Consider the work of God:

Laguna de Llanganuco | Yungay, Peru 

We cannot fix what is broken within us by ourselves. We can assess, diagnose, discover, and believe we have found out what is broken inside of us, but we cannot fix it. Our pride will tell us that we can do it and we don't need to tell or show anyone else our brokenness, but that is a lie from the enemy. And in this scenario, the enemy is yourself. God created all things, including joy and adversity, He knows what is to come and what has been, He knows if we need prosperous moments or adversity on any given day, and He will draw us to Him via either avenue. His plan does not include us knowing what is to come. However, reflecting on my own personal life, I can see that God had a plan during the hardest times, I was blind to my own sin and I thought I was seeking Him, but I wasn't. He allowed me to suffer for my betterment. Solomon mentions that he has seen everything unfold throughout his life and says: "Be not overly righteous, …" which is an incredible depth filled statement. The more we grow in wisdom the better we can live, and the more we can gain righteousness, the more pride will build in us. If we are nonstop attempting to be more and more righteous we will eventually be drowning in our own "righteousness" because there is not a single righteous man on earth. We are all wicked, we are all broken and in need of redemption. There is no man who has not sinned (outside of Jesus Christ, naturally). The day we begin to see ourselves as righteous people is the day we need to seek those around us that we love and confess the pride within our hearts to them. We are nothing without Christ on the cross. He is the righteous one, He is the doer of all good things, to Him goes the glory, not us. It is the Holy Spirit within us, only because of Christ's sacrifice, that anything good comes from us. This is one of the most freeing things we can imagine because we just have to fall on our faces and bow before Him and seek Him. We have the perfect example of how we should live out our lives and Christ is there in every aching moment encouraging us that it will be okay and this is just a fleeting moment in eternity. He is holding our hand as we are broken down and get dragged through the muck and mud that life can be and he just wants us to place our eyes on Him and see that He will bring us through it, we just have to trust Him. He is enough, He is enough. This is the most important thing to remember in life and it will give us the freedom not to take what people say about us as a personal insult, who hasn't cursed someone (whether out loud or in your mind), no man is better than the next man when it comes to God's view of us. Solomon tested all the things of the world through his God-given wisdom and saw all was vanity, why should we (who aren't nearly as wise as Solomon) try this as well? It is meaningless. He set his life to the idea of wisdom and knowing the scheme of all things and in the end found something that he experienced that was worse than anything else, including death, a woman. He says: "He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her." What! Solomon, you have 700 wives and 300 concubines and you find that nothing on earth is worse than a woman? How is this possible? You are having more sex than any other man in the history of mankind. You are not lacking in any type of physical attribute you desire, you have your choice of anything you want each minute of every day, and you say that He who pleases God escapes the grasp of a woman? Speaking from experience, it isn't women that Solomon hates, it is himself and the sexual issue that he has within him from having over 1,000 different sexual partners. He has lost all sense of seeking to know the soul within the woman, he sees only her body; curves, lips, breasts, etc. and cannot overcome the void within him that seeks connection. Therefore, he continues to add more wives and more concubines. He cannot make his heart overcome his lustful eyes and it is far beyond the point of healing. His mind is so perverted from sex that he cannot see anything but a physical body as he stares at any of his wives or concubines. Solomon, in the beginning, was seeking out a soul-to-soul connection and he never found it. He sought out the physical in the end and it ruined his mind, heart, and vision of women. This is what we do when we sit down to watch pornography. It is not just porn, it is something that is completely changing the way we see a human being. This cannot be overlooked or brushed under the mat as a secret sin that we can overcome by ourselves or say: "It isn't a big deal." It is of the utmost importance if you ever want to feel close to a woman that you seek help to overcome pornography addiction. Porn will gut you of your respect, love, admiration for women and completely change the way you see them. They do not deserve to be treated as bodies for our enjoyment they are daughters of the King of all Kings and our creator-God. I am guilty of this and it is a regret that I have had since I was 16 years old. Yes, you will "feel" better and you can be happy from viewing pornography (for a very small fleeting moment), but you won't see what it is doing to you or how it is shaping your mind and heart away from God's purposeful creation and into your own perversion. True satisfaction and joy come from making love to a woman's soul, not her body. Seek to know who she is and understand what makes her unique from the rest of the world, appreciate her, love her, marry her and then you can enjoy the fruits of God's design. God put boundaries in place around sex for our own good and if we truly want to be happy and find lasting joy through sex we will follow them. If you are struggling with pornography, tell someone who will rebuke it and help you overcome it. Do not go to someone who will just treat it as a minor issue and allow you to continue to give-in to ruining your perception of women. It is better that you're exposed to porn than never being able to have a relationship with the opposite sex because you only see a body. Christ is enough. Forget your pride (which is always misplaced) for one second, it is irrelevant. Forget about what people think about you for one iota and see that Christ redeems all things. It took me almost 10 years to overcome pornography and it is just the beginning of a lifelong battle of cleansing my heart and mind from things I have seen and regret, but He is enough. Solomon mentions that he never found a woman he had a deep and soulful connection with and he only had 1 male friend out of 1,000 where they were sincere and open and honest with each other about their lives. (I am extremely blessed to have 2 such friends who I feel I can go to with anything, yet, it wasn't always that way for me. But I have lied to them many times as well throughout my life.) This is something that we are even worse at today, a soulful connection with another human being. This is why 70% of marriages end in divorce, women are abused and alone, children go through life without parents, people feel completely isolated and cannot endure another day of life on earth because we are all broken and we don't seek soulful connection, we seek the easier things in relationships and remove the idea of truly getting to know one another. If we want to have true friendship and love we must learn to seek the soul of others, not their temporary body. 

Dear Lord, I pray that you will work in my filthy heart to purify me through whatever means necessary. My mind, heart and soul have been perverted much like Solomons and I lack the wisdom to be able to overcome my own iniquities. I am helpless without you. Draw near to me and save me from myself. Mark 9:24 "... I believe; help my unbelief!" Amen. 

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