ESOCS Devotional 25 November 2024 – Lay It To Heart
MEMORY VERSE: ““It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart..” Ecclesiastes 7:2
TEXT: ECCLESIASTES 7:1-14
A good name is better than precious ointment,
And the day of death than the day of one’s birth;
2 Better to go to the house of mourning
Than to go to the house of feasting,
For that is the end of all men;
And the living will take it to heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
So is the laughter of the fool.
This also is vanity.
7 Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason,
And a bribe debases the heart.
8 The end of a thing is better than its beginning;
The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
9 Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry,
For anger rests in the bosom of fools.
10 Do not say,
“Why were the former days better than these?”
For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.
11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
And profitable to those who see the sun.
12 For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense,
But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it.
13 Consider the work of God;
For who can make straight what He has made crooked?
14 In the day of prosperity be joyful,
But in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other,
So that man can find out nothing that will come after him.
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The heart is a centrally positioned organ of the human body and has the capacity to give a lasting retention to whatever enters into it. No wonder the scripture confirms that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). In other words, the content of the heart has the capacity to create a future for a man.
Our text emphasizes the importance of what we make resident in our hearts. It is therefore necessary we make the following highlights:
First, what you lay to heart determines where you will be laid in time and eternity. It is not possible for you to lay frivolities and vanities to heart and expect to be laid in a treasured place in this world and that to come. You can’t fill your heart with worldliness and think that you can sit in heavenly places at the end of your sojourn here on earth. You want to sit with kings and you are choking your life with laziness and slothfulness; how realistic will that be? Proverbs 22:29 says, “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.” What you lay to your heart now that you are alive will be a major determining factor of where and how you will be laid in time and eternity.
Second, you will need to know that what you fail to lay to heart will successfully assist your laying to rest. Yes! The things you refuse to lay to heart are the things that will lay you to rest. The man who suffocates his life with alcohol, cocaine, hard drugs and tobacco and fail to put in his heart the looming danger will easily be assisted to the grave. The young lady who fails to heed to several warnings against waywardness will eventually have her life destroyed. When you don’t lay safety rules to heart in the work place or while driving, you are only a disaster waiting to happen. We already knew the parable of the fly that refuses to hear advice.
Third, what you lay to heart will help you apply caution to your life and daily lifestyle. If in your heart it is registered that one day, you will exit this world, then, you will be careful of how you live daily. If in your heart you are aspiring and determined to go to heaven, then, you will not fall for the antics of the devil on daily basis. If you have spending eternity with Jesus in your heart, you will live the life of the saints on earth.
- Do not suffocate your heart with the frivolities of this world.
- Learn to lay things of eternal value to your heart.
- Let the good things you lay to heart guide your actions on earth.
- Lord, we are grateful for giving us an active heart; help us to lay the correct things in it always, in Jesus name. Amen.
Further Reading: Proverbs 30:1-9; 2 Corinthians 8:16-end
ESOCS Devotional 25 November 2024
