Harvest Daily Devotions

Before I became a Christian, I was like most young people, looking for purpose and meaning in life. The thinking of the day was that we, the young people, were going to change our world. The adult establishment did not have the answers. Our faith in government was shattered. So we thought we would change things.

But after a little time, I began to realize that the youth movement had the same phony love and hypocrisy I had seen in the adult world. It was the same selfishness and emptiness of the generation that preceded it and the generations that would follow. It was only a pale version of what can really be known in a relationship with God and as you walk with His people.

On my high school campus, there was a very outspoken group of Christians who were not ashamed of the gospel. I went to one of their meetings and ended up hearing the gospel and giving my life to Christ. My life was radically impacted. God's promises started being fulfilled in my own life, and then I knew personally that Jesus Christ was real.

Having lived in the world for 17 years and having sampled many of the pleasures it had to offer, I knew the futility and emptiness of it all. I knew it was a dead-end street. I knew then that this world was empty. And it still is. As Solomon said, "Vanity of vanities . . . all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

So what is the answer? "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all" (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Without God, life is vain and empty.