Solomon searched for happiness everywhere and couldn’t find anything to bring the type of happiness he was looking for. Instead, he found that to everything there is a season and that true joy only comes from the Lord. His conclusion in Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 states, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.”
True joy comes from the Lord. Many nonbelievers think that Christianity is just a list of rules. But it is much more than that. He planted eternity ine the heart of every believer. Eternity with Him is what gives the believer joy. Since it is in the heart of man, man longs to know his Creator more and more. He has placed that desire within us. Other people would say, “God wants me to be happy.” While there is a little bit of truth in that statement, it is a very shallow, human thought. His desire is for us to desire Him; He longs for us to make Him our joy. If we are seeking Him and His heart, then we will find the happiness we are looking for in Him. Solomon discovered this truth after seeking after meaningless things.
Finding His joy is a process. He plants eternity in our hearts, which means we have His joy from the minute we are saved, but we tend to look in other places for our happiness. So just as Solomon was on a journey to find the real meaning of life and joy, it may take us a while to learn the truth as he did. It may cost us heartaches, mistakes, and consequences. Ultimately though, if we seek after Him instead of meaningless things, we will cause ourselves a lot less heartache and will find true joy!