Eternity in Man’s Heart - Lee Brainard

In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read the profound statement, “God has set eternity in man’s heart.” This sense of eternity, like a bottomless pit, leaves all of us human beings restless and unfulfilled no matter how much stuff we accumulate in life — be it possessions, money, attainments, or fame. We cannot rid ourselves of this hole. We cannot ignore this hole. We cannot fill this hole with things that are less than eternal and infinite. The only way we can fill it is to lay hold of things that are eternal and infinite.

Augustine recognized this when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Likewise Blaise Pascal, the famous mathematician and philosopher, when he said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

So let us turn to the infinite God. When a man turns to God in faith and believes on Jesus and his sacrifice for the sins of mankind, he receives eternal life (John 3:16) and an infinite reward (2 Corinthians 4:17). As an heir of God and co-heir of Christ (Romans 8:17) he inherits all things — the entirety of God’s wonderful creation. We can be filled with the infinite Giver and his infinite gifts.

~Lee Brainard, May 31, 2014