SIGH OR SOAR? – Ecclesiastes 9:12 Devotional
Ecclesiastes 9:12
“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
I vividly recall sitting at the bedside of our daughter as she was dying. Joyce had gone home and it was just Brenda and I in that quiet room. In the past weeks I had remembered her as a little girl in a frilly pink dress. Now she was a mother of three beautiful children, just moments from ascending to be with the Lord.
This was no time for me to focus on the loss, but on the joys that awaited her in glory. As I focused upon the glory which awaited her, I almost felt a pang of homesickness for heaven. One of the Scriptures I quoted for Brenda was Psalm 23. Verse 4 was especially precious: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” It was this promise that made her funeral a few days later a celebration of praise.
Some people experience sickness and incapacitation of one sort or another. In those times it is well to consider the way God’s people have suffered across the centuries of time. Some of the greatest songs or poems of praise were penned at times of suffering.
Fredrick Lehman penned the words of the old hymn, “The Love of God”. Actually, he wrote only the first two verses. The third verse was written nearly one thousand years ago by a Jewish songwriter. They were found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum.
The general opinion was that this inmate had written the epic in moments of sanity. Listen to the words: “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry. Nor would the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.”
Each of us is given a choice in dealing with the pain and agony of this life. We can sigh and moan about how hard our situation is, or we can soar above the circumstances and praise the Lord from whom all blessings come! I, for one, choose to soar! Come and soar with me!
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil