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SUBMIT TO GOD IN YOUR YOUTH

Ecclesiastes 12:1-14

Saturday, 15 January 2022




“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them…” -Ecclesiastes 12:1


Time flies and before we know it, those who are young today, will one day be old. There are different stages in life and youth is one of them. This is the time when we start planning to build a life for ourselves— a good education, a satisfying job, lots of money, own a place to live, find a life partner—the list goes on– that’s when we dream about having a great future. Remember this is just one phase of life and it will soon vanish; hence there is something more important that we must do when we are young!

If we think that we will always be moving up the ladder till the day we die, we are wrong— life is not the same at every stage. When one is young you have ample free time, limitless zeal and enthusiasm. How do we make the best use of our youthful phase of life? Our key verse says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them…” Submit your life to God in your youthful days!

Solomon here challenges young people to submit to the Lord while they are still young. He reminds them that the days ahead are not going to be the same. ‘Evil days’ - days of distress, discouragement and deceitfulness are coming. If we need to stand firm during those days, we need to be rooted in the Lord from an early age on. Commitment and faith in the Lord in the days of our youth will sustain us and help us overcome in the days of trouble. There is a time coming when all that we do now without Christ will seem meaningless and void when our strength begins to fail; our health fails. The Youth stage of life is a time of desires and dreams. It is important at this stage to choose between the fleeting pleasures of life and true happiness. 1 Timothy 5:6 warns us that those who live for the pleasures of life are dead even while they are alive. Come to Christ, when you are young!

Joshua and Caleb are exceptional examples of people who loved and served God when they were young. When the twelve spies returned from the Promised Land, only Joshua and Caleb returned with a good report. Joshua and Caleb, two of the company, spoke thus: “If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, …..Only do not rebel against the LORD nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:8-9). Joshua and Caleb did not see things the way others saw them, they saw things through God’s eyes and this pleased God. So should it be in the lives of every young man and woman – to see life, not as others around us see it but to see it through God. So pleasing were they in God’s eyes that they were the only two out of the 12 spies who God allowed to enter the Promised Land.

Mark 8:36 [AMP] says, “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?” It is important to choose and submit to God early in life so that we ensure our eternity and we are guided and guarded by His Word and the Holy Spirit all through our lives. Then our lives would be fulfilling and satisfying.


Think About It: God is looking for young men and women who He can fill with His Spirit and who will do great exploits for His Kingdom. Are you one?

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