I heard someone say, “You have to see God!” Equally, you’ve got to hear God. That’s what that verse means, “He gave good heed” (Ecc. 12:9), he was conscientious at hearing God’s voice. Sometimes it’s not even a voice; it’s a nudge or almost a breeze. But your life, your future and your destiny can totally depend on whether you “give good heed”.

Often things are really simple. This world may seem complicated but the most important stuff is simple. Solomon knew this when he advised, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) Such a vital, important nugget from God’s Word, I wrote a blog article about keeping your heart which can be found here.

But it may not seem simple. You can wonder how you can get on board with all this. Where do I start? How can you “hear from God”? How can you “see God”? It does come back to your heart, your desires, your values. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Mat. 5:6) Do you have a heart that hungers for truth, for righteousness, for love, for the things of God? Well, God Himself is not unaware of your desires.

A verse that’s always encouraged me in this is, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect…” (II Chronicles 16:9) God sees your heart and innermost thoughts, even when you don’t even believe in God or know He’s there. And, like what certainly happened in my life, He is doing what He can to bring you to Him and to give you the desires of your heart, even while you may be inadvertently resisting the drawing of His Spirit working to win and help you.

The whole amazing subject of Salvation is so enormous in itself, how God’s brings us to call out to Him and His Son for the first time, often when we’ve been dwelling in such extreme spiritual darkness and rebellion for so long. That’s what happened to me, like the verse says, He “delivers from the lowest hell.” (Psalm 86:13)

But that’s not at all the end. It’s a magnificent beginning and perhaps the greatest beginning but it’s not supposed to be the end. Like Jesus said to one crippled man, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” (John 5:8). Sadly for some, if not many, they never really get to that “walk” part. They never really get going with following God. They don’t “take heed” first and then obey after that. So they miss so very much, even in this present life, of all that God could do for them and with them and through them.

But like I said, it all boils down to really simple stuff. This morning I was reviewing some of the Bible verses I’ve memorized over the years and I came to the ones where this verse about “giving good heed” comes from. They are very meaningful to me and I wrote a blog article on these which was very personal, called “Still”.

It’s personal to me because I think it was personal to Solomon when he wrote it. I feel it may be a personal word from Solomon himself about his life and how it had gone. Solomon says, speaking of himself that the Preacher “still taught the people wisdom. He set in order many proverbs.” (Ecc. 12:9) Solomon, in his great wisdom, probably knew that things had really taken a turn for the worse in the kingdom of Israel. But he says that “he still taught the people wisdom”, even though times were not as they had been before.

But Solomon also says in these same passages, “Yea, he gave good heed” which is a way of saying that he himself still made a real effort to hear from God and then to write it down and pass it on. He heard from God. He tried to keep his heart, even in spite of some grievous sins in his life. And God was still speaking to Him. Solomon hadn’t given up on God and God hadn’t given up on him.

And that right there may be some of the most basic, fundamental lessons of life that we can find. We have to hear from God. We have to, in a sense, see God. Jesus even said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) And of course it follows, we have to obey God. Peter the apostle famously stood up to the Pharisees of his day and said that God “gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him.” (Acts 5:32)

So, actually, it is all pretty simple. Life isn’t based on your technology, your university degree, your bank account or your nationality. It’s based on your heart. May God in His infinite mercy help each of us to “give good heed” to Him.