God put Eternity in Man’s Heart: we Realize the Vanity of Human Life and we Seek God!

Human life without God is vain and vanity, for human life in the corrupted world is a vanity, a chasing after wind; however, God has put eternity in man’s heart, and we can return to God, be saved, receive His life, and be one with Him organically to live a life for the fulfilment of His purpose.

Millions and millions of people have lived and currently live in this world, and they toil, labour, struggle, seek to enjoy, work hard, relax, and do all kinds of things; human life under the sun in the natural man is simply vanity.

Some build a career for themselves and seek to get higher and higher up the corporate ladder, and right when they get at the top, they realize it has all been chasing after wind, vanity, and emptiness.

Nothing in this world can satisfy us; nothing under the sun can fill the emptiness within or satisfy the deep longing we have in us, for God has put eternity in man’s heart, and only He can fill us.

We try to fill ourselves with sports, news, entertainment, games, sightseeing, gardening, education, work, and all kinds of things, but unless we have God in us and unless we live in the organic union with Him in spirit, it is all in vain.

We may be trained and be skilled, pursuing consecutive progressive achievements in public or professional and business life, but at the end of the day, it is all in vain.

Especially in this rapid-moving world today, our job description may not even exist within a few years, for everything is being automatized and replaced by robots and machines; seeking to have a career in this world today leads to chasing after wind – we can’t catch the wind, and we can’t be satisfied with our job.

May the Lord grant us to have wisdom from God to realize that everything under the sun is vanity and a chasing of the wind.

If we see this, we will seek God; if we realize the vanity of it all, we will turn to God, seek God, receive God, enjoy God, depend on God, and live a life in oneness with God, for this gives meaning to our human life.

We are made in the image of God and we have His likeness; both within and without, we look like God, and nothing apart from God can truly fill and satisfy us.

The book of Ecclesiastes exposes and speaks of the vanity of vanities, how everything under the sun is chasing after wind; however, praise the Lord, God put eternity in man’s heart – a divinely implanted sense of a purpose which nothing but God can fill and satisfy!

When God is our everything, when we enjoy God and live in God, we will live a healthy and normal human life for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose, just like Daniel did.

When Daniel was about to be cast into the lion’s den, the king called him, Daniel, servant of the living God.

Daniel was working full time in the high government office, but he was recognized by his superior as servant of the living God, for the king said, Daniel, the God whom you serve continually, He will rescue you. What a testimony is this!

We may be on our job, doing our work the best we can, it is clear that we are faithful, diligent, reliable, and trustworthy in our work, but others need to have the realization that we serve a living God.

Realizing the Nothingness and Vanity of our Human Life and coming back to God to enjoy Him and Fulfill His Purpose

Just like Solomon after him, David realized the nothingness and vanity of his human life under the sun when he composed Psalm 39.

In this psalm, he asks God to cause him to know his end and the measure of his days, what is it, so that he may know how transient he is.

He realized that his days are mere handbreadths, and his lifetime is as nothing before God, for every man at his best is altogether vanity.

Man goes about as a semblance; men bustle about in vain, heaping up riches yet not knowing how to gather them or really enjoy them.

In this psalm David was brought by God to realize that he was nothing and vanity; he realized the nothingness and vanity of his life, and he learned that every man at his best is altogether vanity.

When we realize the nothingness and vanity of our human life, we will see that our condition is sinful; such a situation opens the way for Christ to crucify us and enter into us to replace us by living Himself through us! Wow!

When we realize the nothingness and vanity of our human life, when we realize that our condition is sinful in this world of vanity, we will simply open to God and He will come in to fill us and cause us to live together with Him in an organic union (see Gal. 2:20).

It is a blessing for us to realize that we are nothing, that we are transient; it is such a blessing to see that the length of our life is a handbreadth and that it is vanity, which leads us to ask, Why are we here?

By realizing the vanity of the old creation, our being is finally fully open, and we will see that God Himself is the meaning of our human life, and His heart’s desire and purpose is the purpose we live for.

When we open to God, realizing the nothingness and vanity of our life, we will realize that He Himself is the meaning of our human life, for He is working out a new creation to be lived out in the midst of the old creation.

Man was created by God with the highest and the noblest purpose, that is, to express God in His image and with His divine life and nature (Gen. 1:26).

However, the enemy of God – Satan, the devil – came in to inject himself as sin into the man created by God for His purpose (Gen. 3:1-6; Rom. 5:18; 3:23; 1 John 3:4).

Through the fall of man, man and all the created things that had been committed by God to his dominion were made subject to vanity (Rom. 8:20-21); thus, human life in the corrupted world also became vanity.

The way for us to escape this vanity is to come back to God and take God in Christ as redemption, life, wealth, enjoyment, pleasure, and satisfaction so that we may fulfill the purpose of God.

When we return to God and take Him as our everything, we may still be used by God to fulfill His original purpose in creating man for the fulfillment of His eternal economy (Eccl. 12:13-14). Amen!

When we say that we need to realize the nothingness of our human life and the vanity of life under the sun we do not simply dismiss and negate everything that exists and we can do.

Rather, God has given to all the people on earth certain aspects of human life for their enjoyment; He has given and allowed some very human things for us to enjoy, such as enjoying a good meal, enjoying nature, etc.

These are to preserve human life on earth for God’s eternal purpose. It is not worldly for us to realize that, as human beings, we can enjoy a good meal to meet our human need; without such human things, all of this would be gone, and it would be terrible.

However, in all these things we realize that the real source of enjoyment, the One who can really satisfy us and give meaning to our human life, this One is God Himself; only God in Christ can fulfil our need and cause us to live a life of meaning and be saved from nothingness and vanity.

Lord, we open our being to You; cause us to know our end and the measure of our days so that we may know how transient we are. We quiet down our being before You, for we realize that our days are as mere handbreadths and our lifetime is as nothing before You. Oh Lord, how sinful is our condition and how vain is human life under the sun! We come to You, Lord, to take God in Christ as our redemption, our life, our wealth, our enjoyment, our pleasure, and our satisfaction. Lord, You are the meaning of our life. We return to You to take You as our everything so that we may still be used by God to fulfil His original purpose in creating man. Without You, our life is vanity and a chasing after wind; with You as our life and everything, our life is full of meaning!

God has put Eternity in Man’s Heart for us to Seek God, Know God, and Live in the Organic Union with God

As Solomon was pondering and considering the nothingness and vanity of human life under the sun, he wrote Eccl. 3:11, He has made everything beautiful in its own time; also, He has put eternity in their heart.

When God created man, He put something into man which Solomon called “eternity”; in man there’s an aspiration for the eternal things.

In each human being, there is an aspiration to know God, to know eternal things, and to focus not on the earthly things or the psychological things but on the spiritual things, the eternal things.

Many of the successful people in the world can testify that, as they are endeavouring to advance their career, they sensed that there was an emptiness within them; their real seeking is for something eternal.

Even after they gained what they desire or achieved the success or position they aspired for, they still felt as if it was nothing.

God has put eternity in man’s heart; there is “a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy” (The Amplified Bible, Ecc. 3:11).

God has put an aspiration, a seeking in man’s heart so that man seeks God; every person – especially every thoughtful person – has within him a longing and seeking for eternity.

God created us, men, in His image and formed in us a spirit so that we may receive and contain Him and have a heart that seeks God Himself so that He may be our satisfaction (Gen. 1:26; 2:7; Zech. 12:1).

What a noble, high, and amazing purpose God has for man, and what a great destiny we are meant to have!

Even though man fell away from God and sin through Satan came in to frustrate man from receiving God for his satisfaction, there still is eternity in man’s heart!

There still is the desire for God, the seeking for God in our heart (Eccl. 3:11).

We can say that in God’s creation of man there were three striking things: His image, our human spirit to receive Him, and eternity in man’s heart, that is, a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages, which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy.

Because God put eternity in man’s heart, we seek after God.

In Song of Songs, we see how a seeker initiates the seeking after God. We become seekers of God because God put in us such a sense of purpose to seek something eternal. We may think that the things in this world can satisfy us, but we will find out that it’s all vanity, a chasing after wind.

Nothing can satisfy or fulfill the sense of purpose in man but God Himself.

Those who pursue the temporary things of this world are wasting their time; those who pursue God, seek God, and enjoy God are redeeming the time, for they touch and enjoy eternal things and not merely temporary things.

Temporal things can never satisfy us; only the eternal God, who is Christ, can satisfy the deep sense of purpose in man’s heart (see 2 Cor. 4:18).

We do not regard the things which are seen, for they are temporary; we regard the things which are not seen, the things of God, which are eternal.

When we seek after God and receive Him into us, we enter into an organic union with Him; it is in this organic union with God that we find the meaning of our human life, and our sense of purpose is being satisfied.

Nothing can fill us and satisfy us but God, and when we enter into and remain in the organic union with God, we can be one with Him for the fulfillment of His purpose, and our life is full of meaning.

When we realize the meaninglessness and nothingness of our human life, when we see the vanity of human life under the sun, we will seek after God, for God has put eternity in man’s heart.

And when we find God, when we receive Christ as our life, we enter into an organic union with Him in spirit; in this organic union, He lives and works – and we live and work with Him and in Him, and He lives in us as we live Him out. Hallelujah!

Thank You, God, for creating us in Your image and forming in us a spirit so that we may receive and contain God! Thank You for the divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy! Hallelujah, God has put eternity in man’s heart, and we can seek after God, receive God, enjoy God, and be in an organic union with God! Amen, Lord, may we realize the nothingness and vanity of the human life under the sun, and may we seek after God, enjoy God, be one with God, and allow God in Christ to live in us as we live in the organic union with God! Wow, we transient and moral men can enter into an organic union with God and live one with God to fulfill God’s purpose in creating man! Hallelujah!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living“, ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 12, Vanity of Vanities, the Reality in Jesus, and the Revelation of the Sons of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – What good our pleasure and our wealth? / Though joys we have and family, / We’ll have our worries just the same! / It’s all vanity! / Days of toil to gain and restless nights: / Though gained without calamity, / When death comes it is gone for aye! / It’s all vanity! (Hymns #1080)
  – A wanderer within the world / For pleasure ever seeks; / Be it in body or in mind, / With vanity it reeks. / For self I labored day and night, / My castles built in sand; / But, praise the Lord, He wrecked them all— / Much better things He planned. (Hymns #1235)
  – What can satisfy the human life / of vanity? / Nothing but the love of Jesus! / What can swallow up the taste of / all mortality? / Nothing but the love of Jesus! (Hymns #1013)