Eccles 1:9    What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

    

This is poor old Solomon at a down time in his life, feeling very jaded and very cynical. The trouble is that he's drifted away from the Lord and that's left him feeling bad. Having said that, he is only speaking what he has found to be true as he has investigated life. Ecclesiastes is an amazing testimony of a man who has done it all. Being the richest man in the world he could do what he liked and so he tried everything. It also meant that he thought a great deal and thought about life. It was at that point that he began to be cynical. There's nothing you can think of that someone hasn't already done, is what his conclusion was, but note that it was ‘under the sun' meaning on the earth, from a human perspective.

 

This is what happens when you have a godless mentality. All you are left with is trying to make sense out of life, trying to achieve something meaningful, something to give a sense of fulfilment, and without God that is not possible, because He has made us so that we are only truly fulfilled in relationship with Him. With Him leading us, the possibilities are endless. Modern self-help gurus say we can do anything, but we can't. We are limited by our sinful selves. It is only when we put ourselves in the hands of the Lord that we find a new purpose, a new direction, a new sense of fulfilment and achievement that is really meaningful and a blessing.