I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Ecclessiastes 7-12.

    The writer tells us that it is better to think about death than pleasure because, sooner or later, everyone dies. More importantly, we should not try too hard to be wise or good, but we should not be wicked or foolish either. No one can succeed in never sinning, so we should not try. That does not mean that we should not try not to sin, just not stress out over the fact that we have sinned. However, God created us to be virtuous, so we should not allow sin and temptation to carry us into wickedness. In a similar manner, striving to never do anything foolish will fail, so we should not strain ourselves striving to always do the wise thing. Anyone who thinks that they can always do what is right and wise is self-righteous and arrogant (and wrong). The point the writer is making here is that we all make mistakes. We should accept when we have and strive to do better in the future, but not spend time berating ourselves for our failure.

    The writer continues by telling us that we cannot ever fully learn God’s plans and actions. So, we should not wear ourselves out trying to figure out why one thing happened and another did not. While we are young we must be careful not to let the exuberance of youth cause us to forget God. We only have a short time on this earth, let us strive to do God’s will while we have the energy and strength to do so. And if we should live to a great age, let us rejoice in every day which God has given us.