OUR DAILY BREAD                       Sat., January 7, 1995
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READ:  Ecclesiastes 1:1-11;
       Hebrews 11:1-6

                  THE CURE FOR FUTILITY

      "Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
            the evidence of things not seen."

                   - Hebrews 11:1

A terminally ill man in the hospital told me that
life had given him a raw deal.  He felt cheated
because he had worked hard but would not be able to
enjoy retirement.  Besides, he was lonely.  He and
his wife didn't have a good relationship, and his
children and grandchildren seldom visited him.  His
former business associates ignored him.  He was
bitter and didn't want to hear about God.

The writer of Ecclesiastes also felt a sense of
futility.  He observed hardworking people caught up
in a monotonous and pointless cycle, only to die and
be forgotten.  He wrote, "Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity." (1:2).  But he recognized that this was not
the whole picture.  Throughout the book he said that
life gains meaning when God is acknowledged.

And the writer of Hebrews, penning his words after
the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension
of Jesus Christ, declared that faith instills hope
and helps us to understand the truths that give
meaning and purpose to life.

Do you feel as if life has cheated you?  If you do,
look in faith to Jesus.  He was unjustly nailed to
a cross so you could be forgiven of your sin and have
a life that is fulfilling (Jn. 3:16; 10:10).  As you
choose to live by faith for Him, He will deliver you
from those feelings of futility.

    -- Herbert Vander Lugt

 Jesus is all the world to me,
   My life, my joy, my all;
     He is my strength from day to day,
       Without Him I would fall.

           -- Thompson

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           THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
---------------------------------

     Christ turns life right-side-up
         in an upside-down-world.

THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Genesis 20-22

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