Review: In the last two sets of reflection questions, we have been encouraged to practice gratitude during the week.  That is to regularly practice giving thanks to God for the various people and blessings in our lives, however big or small they may seem. How has that been going?  How does this help us, in this life here under the sun, to both "glorify God and enjoy Him forever"(Westminster Shorter Catechism)? 

Read Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 (maybe twice?), and consider what stands out to you and why? 

On Sunday, Phil mentioned how, like the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, we often can get caught up searching for the answers to life in places"where they aren't even there." It is a futile search.  Where have you experienced this in your life? 

In this passage, the Preacher describes his pursuit to find meaning in wisdom and knowledge.  How can he say this is "but a striving after wind?" And how do you think this connects with the current "Age of Information" in which we live? 

In commenting on v 13, Phil described the mercy of God that it is, that we get to wrestle with life's big questions.  That, even though it is an "unhappy business", it is a mercy to wrestle with the void we each have inside.  All of it is meant to cause us to look up. Consider the next two quotes and discuss. 

• ​”If I find in myself a desire which nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” ~C.S. Lewis 

• "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You" ~St Augustine

On Sunday, we were challenged to practice setting aside two minutes a day to look up.  To set aside two minutes of silence to simply reflect upon Who God is.  Read Psalm 46 and Colossians 3:1-3.  How does this practice of looking up help our hearts to find rest in Him? 

Spend two minutes silently reflecting on the Lord, then discuss. 

Phil mentioned a simple three word prayer he has been praying lately, "Into Your hands." How can this simple prayer help us to look up and trust the Lord? (Another simple three word prayer to consider, "Thee I adore.")