Ecclesiastes 7-9

(December 11, 2014)

                Adversity and sorrow are something that each of us needs to go through in our lives.  Understanding that life is nothing more than a test, we are able to deal with this sorrow in a productive and healthy way.  If we see our sorrow as a negative thing, we can turn away from God and our fellow men (I know the temptation to do that).  But if we remember that life is a test and a boot camp for the soul, we can look to our sorrows for better understanding of God and what He wants us to become.

                Thus sorrow becomes a great decision point for us in our development.  It is truly a test of our faith, because if our faith is strong enough we will recognize that the sorrow is temporary and choose God.  If we lack sufficient faith, we will see our sorrow as permanent unless we change our circumstances.  We will begin to flounder, to take inappropriate steps to minimize our pain (taking shortcuts around rather than braving the pain to move through).  Thus we can look at how we respond to our sorrow as a clear indication of our level of faith.