July 3

“Meaningless, meaningless,” says the Teacher, “utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Ecclesiastes opens with a sobering perspective: the endless cycles of life, the fleeting nature of human achievement, and the inability of wisdom, pleasure, or work to satisfy the soul. The writer is not being cynical; he is being honest. Apart from God, even our best days are dust in the wind. But in Ecclesiastes 3, a shift happens: “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” (v.11). We were made for more than what we can see under the sun. We were made for eternity.

Psalm 45, in contrast, is a wedding song—a celebration of a king and his bride, but also a deeper foreshadowing of Christ and His Church. “Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever…” (v.6). It lifts our gaze to something unshakable and glorious: the eternal reign of Jesus, our Bridegroom King.

Then we come to 2 Timothy 1, where Paul reminds Timothy of the eternal purpose and grace given to us “before the beginning of time” (v.9). He urges him to fan into flame the gift of God, to hold on to sound teaching, and to not be ashamed of the gospel. Paul is writing from prison, but his soul is free. Why? Because he knows whom he has believed (v.12), and that everything else fades in comparison to the eternal life secured in Christ.

These three passages invite us to wrestle honestly with the brevity of life, then anchor ourselves deeply in the beauty, purpose, and power of eternity. In a world that can feel meaningless, we find meaning in Jesus.

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