“I wish I had done that.” will never coax a Genie from the bottle.
Ecclesiastes 7:21-25
Okay, let’s test that theory…
Go grab your Genie bottle and rub on it.
I’ll wait.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. (that’s me waiting…)
You’re back!
So, how did that go? Did anything happen?
I thought so… nothing.
After that useless exercise, (although I enjoyed watching it 🙂 ), I suppose I should ask for forgiveness…
The wording of today’s Tiny Words. Big Life. quote implies that there might be a Genie in the bottle – which of course, there isn’t.
As it turns out, the only Genie is you… Unless you decide to change the outcome of something in your past, no amount of bottle rubbing is going to make any difference.
Which brings us to one of life’s basic truths: Change is created by doing something different than what you’ve done in the past.
Today’s Tiny Words. Big Life. Bible verses come from Ecclesiastes, King Solomon’s book of wisdom – the OG Tiny Words. Big Life. In this chapter, we find him describing his own process of trying to become wise in all things. In essence, he’s “wishing” that he had everything figured out.
So what does he do?
He changes… he actually does something about it. He quit wishing and devised a plan.
In verse 25, he says, “So I turned my mind to understand…“
Although he never figured out how to become wise in all things, he did figure out that he’ll never figure it out. He found that it wasn’t that God failed mankind, but mankind itself was at fault.
The Tiny Words. Big Life. takeaway is this: Stop wishing for things to change. Instead, pray for motivation to do better. Pray to be led by God and to do His will for your life. As He promised, God will always be with you. But, you have to ask Him to give you His power through prayer.
And the next time you’re tempted to rub a bottle because some crazy Blogmeister tells you to, brush him off and go get your Bible… (no rubbing required).
Ecclesiastes 7:21-25
21 Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you — 22 For you know in your heart; that many times you yourself have cursed others. 23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise” — but this was beyond me. 24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound — who can discover it? 25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.