Prayables - Ecclesiastes 1:8 - Scripture - Prayer

Commentary: 5 Senses + One

When it all becomes a bore, turn to your soul and spice it up! It's easy to slip into the habit of only seeing God's gifts with the five senses. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling can bring pleasure, but to experience life fully, you need to engage your soul.

At first glance, Ecclesiastes 1:8 appears to be a scriptural downer. Yet when you think about what could come next in this message it's positively uplifting! The eye never has enough of seeing, nor ear its fill of hearing... but the soul finds just the right amount of satisfaction in praying. Weary no more, your senses are filled with awesome energy when prayer joins the party!

"All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing."

Blog: 3 Ways to Satisfaction

Satisfaction comes from three places: your mind, your body and your soul.

1. You can be satisfied intellectually. Let’s say you learn something new – how wonderful to finally get it! Maybe you’re challenged on a long-held belief. The arguments and discussion from a different point of view, brings new clarity to an old conviction. Satisfaction, is the reward stemming from the amazing intelligence we’re given. OK, in my case, maybe my own intelligence isn’t all that amazing. Still, I’m impressed that I can think and reason.

2. Your body can be satisfied. We have an appetite, physical energy and a sex drive. Think about how wonderful food tastes when we’re hungry. Come to think of it, hunger isn’t always a requirement! But there’s a definite connection to being satisfied, from the food we eat. I caught a snippet of a reality show recently. The interviewer asked a question to a group of women: What’s your guilty pleasure? The answers ranged from potato chips to ice cream. Not a single person answered the other form of bodily satisfaction, but I'd bet they were thinking it. You know which one I'm talking about. You need only to visit your local Brookstone and check out the wide variety of massagers offered to understand.

3. The ultimate in satisfaction, comes from the soul. That’s because when your soul is satisfied, your mind is sharper and your body works better. Even the skeptic will agree; satisfaction comes with a clear conscience, an awareness of the beauty in nature and recognition that there is more to life than our own petty concerns. It’s a circle really. Your mind, body and soul continuously feed each other in the satisfaction loop that is inside of you. Keep the circle of satisfaction strong. Fill your soul with prayer, and you’ll find you’re perfectly satisfied.

-Susan Diamond