Morning Devotional January 4, 2016

Ecclesiastes 2:1-3

“I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.”

We are warned in these verses of the vanity of striving after pleasure. In our world today we see many seeking and striving after the pleasures of this world. They are living their lives for the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. With no concern for the things of God.

To top it all off people of God and those claiming the name of Jesus are some of the worst perpetrators of this. Self motivation and self love have replaced the love of God and the love of our Savior in many a church service.

We see in the religious world today those who have forsaken the Word of God for the word of self-will, self-love, and self-promotion. People want to claim the name of Jesus but not follow His commandments. They seek His blessings for things and ideas that He warned us to stay away from. And all the while if they would just read His Word in it's context they would see the answers they seek. But instead they seek the answers they want and not what they need.

Satan has so deceived them that they will do everything they do in the name of Christ while at the same time bringing shame on His name for the very things they do in His name.

O how we need to heed the Words of our Lord and Savior in all that we do. O how we must strive for that final prize and not for the pleasures of this sinful world. O dear Christian, Seek the face of our Lord and Savior today. Strife not after the self motivation of this sinful world. Seek not after the lust and the pleasures of this life. But rather strife to do the work of our Lord. Seek after that which He has for us. Leave the world behind and live your life after His commandments and examples given in His Word. Leave behind those false teachers and false prophets and seek He true churches.

Follow not after false doctrines and false teachings but rather seek the truth of His Word.

Praise ye the Lord!!!