Daily Devotional for Thursday, November 13

A Good Name

“A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth,” Ecclesiastes  7:1.

When your family talks to some preacher about your funeral service, will it be challenging to be both honest, and yet, not reflect you in a bad light? Most importantly, will the preacher be able to say that he looks forward to seeing you in Heaven? If I could be remembered in one sentence, this would be it: “That guy was a mess, but Jesus straightened him out, and he finished strong!”

Ecclesiastes is a candid book. It clearly teaches us the vanity or uselessness of trying to live a life not centered in and guided by God. The preacher was honest about struggles, doubting faith and temptation. Guided by personal experience, the “Preacher” showed the folly of making anything more important than a God-centered life. The book also made some odd comparisons: Death is better than being born, mourning is better than feasting, and sorrow is better than laughter. How can these things be? 

God allows trials to beset us because they often teach us to rely on Him. The truth is that we learn more from the bad times than we do from the good times. In the good times, we tend to abandon God; in the bad times, we tend to turn to Him. If life were always good, then life would teach us nothing.

The writer asked how a person’s death can be better than the day of his birth. To the average person, anything is better than being dead. Christians are not average people; the Bible teaches we are a peculiar people. One of the peculiar things is that we should recognize that this life, no matter how great it is, can never compare to what we will get in Heaven with our Lord. Are you awaiting that eagerly, or are you hanging on to this life?

JUST A THOUGHT

What will your legacy be? For what will you be remembered?

Wally Fry