“Remember your Creator
while you are young,
before the days of trouble come
and the years when you say,
‘I find no pleasure in them.’”
(Ecclesiastes 12:1)
How few people there are who like King Josiah of old, choose to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength when they are still young! Most young people think that they will be happier if they join in with the world. To them, the ways of God seem to be old-fashioned and boring. They want to take a short-cut to happiness, so they choose what looks like an easier path. But you cannot get to the top of a mountain without climbing. What they do not understand is that the greatest pleasures are in the presence of God, for as the scripture says,
“In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)
The pleasures the world offers are a cheap, short-lived substitute for the pleasures God gives, for His pleasures are given “forever more” to those who seek Him.
What they fail to realize is just how much God loves us. They do not consider that the moral commandments of God were not given to oppress us. They were given to save us from pain, heartbreak, guilt and sickness.
Where does choosing an easy path to pleasure or happiness lead?
Choose the pleasures of sex outside of marriage ordained by God, and it leads to broken hearts, awful venereal diseases, raising a child as a single parent, the guilt of abortion, the constant fear of losing a lover who has not committed to marry you, and either heartbreak or the guilt of having deeply hurt or used another person.
Choose greed for power and then after you have backstabbed, scratched, and clawed to get to the top by climbing over the backs of good people, what will you have reaped? Power, yes. But people will resent you. They will be afraid of you, but they will not respect you. They will avoid you, and secretly (and justly) criticize you behind your back. Your only friends will not be true friends at all, for they will only be using you to get what they want.
Choose greed for money and after you have cheated others, stolen, skirted the law, underpaid your workers, overcharged for your products or services, or worked too many long hours, what will you have gained? Possessions and money, maybe, if it works. For most it doesn’t work. But work too many long hours and you will hardly know your family, and they will resent you. Overcharge and your customers will resent you. Get caught stealing or breaking the law and you will go to jail. Even if you are not caught, you will always be anxious that perhaps one day you will be caught. Your underpaid workers will also resent you. And what about that money and possessions? Ill-gotten gains tend to take wings and fly away! The more you own, the more you must take care of. And one thing about those who have big houses on huge tracts of land: they have isolated themselves, so that they live alone. Lastly, when you die, can you take any of it with you?
I could go on, but you get the picture. God’s moral commandments are meant to save us from pain like this. He gave them to us in love. As a Biblical counselor, I have counseled people who are filled with regret over the sins of their past. How they wish they could undo what they have done! How they wish they could live their life over again! But they cannot.
Oh, seek God when you are young! Then you will spare yourself so much pain, heartache and guilt. Make the most of your young years by living for God! Do not waste them. If you waste them, you will lose that chance forever. Seek God, and you will find that the pleasures of this world pale in significance to the joy and pleasure He gives. They are like cheap junk food compared to the healthy, organic, delicious, real food of God. Oh taste, and you will see that the Lord is good!
Be among the precious few who seek God when they are young. You will have so much more treasure in heaven waiting for you. Unlike the treasures of this earth which tarnish and break, can be stolen, and ultimately must be left behind, these treasures will last forever.
As to earthly fame, power, pleasures and possessions, Jesus said, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
Choose God’s way, for although it is the uphill path, it is the only one that leads to the top of the mountain, where when you are old you can relax and enjoy the beautiful view of a life well-lived for God.
