June 6th, 25: One Year Bible –– From Meaningless to Joyful: Daily Reflections in Ecclesiastes and Ephesians

Welcome to the Daily Radio Bible! In today’s episode, your host Hunter invites you to join him on June 6th as we continue our journey through Scripture. On this 158th day of Bible reading, we explore the deep questions of meaning and purpose found in Ecclesiastes chapters 1-3, take comfort and inspiration from Psalm 45, and close our reading with the hope-filled promises of Ephesians chapter 2.

Hunter reflects on the age-old struggle between despair and hope: while Ecclesiastes wrestles with life’s apparent meaninglessness, Ephesians reminds us of the new life and abiding peace we have in Christ. Through thoughtful Scripture reading and heartfelt prayer, today’s episode encourages us to see beyond life’s challenges, embrace the joy that God offers, and remember that in Christ, we are never alone.

So grab your Bible, take a deep breath, and let’s spend some time together in God’s word.

TODAY'S DEVOTION:

Meaningless, meaningless, cries the preacher. All is meaningless, he cries. Try as he might, he cannot make sense of his broken life. Nothing in the end seems to be right. All seems to be wrong. He cannot find a way to reconcile life's disparities. He has eternity in his heart. And yet the present is fraught with fractures. Nothing makes sense.

But Paul in Ephesians cries out something different. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now, he says, you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. Christ himself has brought us peace through the cross. The good news has come to us.

In Christ, no longer is life meaningless and hopeless. No, now we have life in him. When we are tempted to see the world through the lens of despair and hopelessness, we can look to the life of Jesus. We can look to his sacrifice. We can look to the love that has been poured out in order that we might be united with him. In our hopelessness and despair, he has offered us his love. His love led him to a cross so he could free us from that despair and offer us life here, life now with eternal purposes and present joy.

The preacher says, "Everything is meaningless, completely meaningless." But Paul says he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. There is someone far greater than Solomon who is able to mend the human soul and make us new. He is even now making all things new.

So let us step into the eternal purposes that he has for us so that we can begin to live, abide and rest and play and have joy and strength in him.

That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so.