Question 1

In what ways is life futile?

Accepted Answer

Job 7:6-7“My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope. O God, remember that my life is but a breath, and I will never again feel happiness.”Job 14:1-2“How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.”Psalm 39:4-5“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.”Psalm 89:47Remember how short my life is, how empty and futile this human existence!Ecclesiastes 6:12In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?Isaiah 40:6-7A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people.”James 4:14How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.The span of life is brief, so everything we do may appear to be futile. But even a brief life, invested wisely for God, brings eternal purpose and reward (Matthew 19:30; 25:23).Psalm 103:15-16Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here.Ecclesiastes 1:11We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.Ecclesiastes 2:16The wise and the foolish both die. The wise will not be remembered any longer than the fool. In the days to come, both will be forgotten.Ecclesiastes 9:5The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.The dead are often forgotten over time, but their lives leave a heritage that can lead others either to wisdom or foolishness.Psalm 39:6We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.Psalm 127:2It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.Habakkuk 2:13Has not the Lord of Heaven’s Armies promised that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes? They work so hard, but all in vain!James 1:11The hot sun rises and the grass withers; the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements.Apart from God, our endeavors are futile and will ultimately amount to nothing.Psalm 94:11The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!Jeremiah 48:29-30“We have all heard of the pride of Moab, for his pride is very great. We know of his lofty pride, his arrogance, and his haughty heart. I know about his insolence,” says the Lord, “but his boasts are empty—as empty as his deeds.”Romans 1:21Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.Romans 12:2Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.1 Corinthians 3:19-20The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.” And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”2 Corinthians 10:5We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.Ephesians 4:17-18With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.Our thoughts and attitudes can be futile unless they are guided by Christ.Psalm 60:11Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless.Psalm 146:3-4Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.Isaiah 2:22Don’t put your trust in mere humans. They are as frail as breath. What good are they?Isaiah 30:1-5“What sorrow awaits my rebellious children,” says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to mine. You make alliances not directed by my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to Egypt for help. You have put your trust in Pharaoh’s protection. You have tried to hide in his shade. But . . . all who trust in him will be ashamed. He will not help you. Instead, he will disgrace you.”Isaiah 31:1What sorrow awaits those who look to Egypt for help, trusting their horses, chariots, and charioteers and depending on the strength of human armies instead of looking to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.Jeremiah 17:5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.”Lamentations 4:17We looked in vain for our allies to come and save us, but we were looking to nations that could not help us.Misplaced confidences are futile. Sometimes, people break their promises, or overpromise, or circumstances change, and they are no longer able to help. We should rely on God to direct our paths, to lead us to the allies he has chosen for us, and to watch over us when all human help fails.

Question 2

How can religion be futile?

Accepted Answer

1 Samuel 12:21“Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless!”1 Kings 18:25-27Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.” So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made. About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”Psalm 31:6I hate those who worship worthless idols. I trust in the Lord.Psalm 115:4-5Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.Jeremiah 2:5This is what the Lord says: “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me? They worshiped worthless idols, only to become worthless themselves.”Jeremiah 10:3-5, 8, 14-15Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree, and a craftsman carves an idol. They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with hammer and nails so it won’t fall over. Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of such gods, for they can neither harm you nor do you any good.” . . . People who worship idols are stupid and foolish. The things they worship are made of wood! . . . The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power. Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.Jeremiah 16:19Lord, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble! Nations from around the world will come to you and say, “Our ancestors left us a foolish heritage, for they worshiped worthless idols.”Worshiping anything or anyone other than God is futile. We may not have physical idols made of wood or stone, but anything we put in God’s place is an idol (people, career, possessions, self). All idols are worthless. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with the God who created us.Isaiah 1:13“Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting—they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings.”Hosea 6:6“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”Matthew 15:8-9“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”Mark 12:33“I [a teacher of religious law] know it is important to love him [God] with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”James 1:26-27If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.Faithless religion is futile. If we truly believe in God, love him, and seek to worship him, our hearts and our actions should move in response. Religious language and ceremonies that fail to inspire genuine love and obedience are worthless in God’s sight. What is the point of going through the motions if we don’t believe enough to truly change our lives?Colossians 2:20-23You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.Legalism (following rules to try to please God) is futile, because it emphasizes rules over relationship. When we spend more time trying to obey rules instead of nurturing our relationship with God, we miss the point, and our faith begins to seem futile.Matthew 23:25-26“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.”No matter how much we polish our outward behavior and appearance, our efforts are futile without God’s Spirit changing us on the inside.1 Corinthians 13:1-3If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.If we do good and positive actions for the wrong reasons, our lives are futile. God made us to love, and until we do, we cannot please him and we cannot find joy ourselves.Isaiah 8:19-22Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead? Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.Zechariah 10:2Household gods give worthless advice, fortune-tellers predict only lies, and interpreters of dreams pronounce falsehoods that give no comfort. So my people are wandering like lost sheep; they are attacked because they have no shepherd.Trying to see the future through fortune-telling or the occult is futile, for only God knows and controls the future.Matthew 7:26-27“But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”Matthew 13:19-22“The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.”Hebrews 4:2This good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.James 1:22-24Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.Hearing God’s Word without responding and obeying is futile. We have been given a great gift—the only way to true meaning and satisfaction.John 15:5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”1 Corinthians 3:12-15Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.Our service without God’s presence is futile—mere busyness. God is not here to bless whatever we choose to do. Instead, we are called to build and grow according to his direction and design. Only in that, will we be blessed.James 2:20How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?Faith without worthy actions is futile, because without action our faith is only superficial. It doesn’t affect us deeply enough to inspire action. Genuine faith produces a heart-felt response.

Question 3

How might even good pursuits and doing my best be futile?

Accepted Answer

Psalm 127:1-2Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.John 5:19So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”John 15:5“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”Excluding God causes even our best work to be futile because our efforts have no eternal results.

Question 4

Why is sin futile?

Accepted Answer

Psalm 119:118You have rejected all who stray from your decrees. They are only fooling themselves.Proverbs 10:28The hopes of the godly result in happiness, but the expectations of the wicked come to nothing.Proverbs 11:7When the wicked die, their hopes die with them, for they rely on their own feeble strength.Jeremiah 13:10“These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing!”A life of sin causes earthly and eternal separation from God. An eternity without God is the ultimate futility.

Question 5

What else is futile?

Accepted Answer

Psalm 127:1-2Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.Living without God is futile. Life without God comes to a sobering focus the day we die.Psalm 2:1Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans?Acts 4:25“You spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, ‘Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans?’”James 4:13-16Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.Planning without God is futile. If the Architect and Master Builder of life is absent, what are we building?Isaiah 14:26-27“I have a plan for the whole earth, a hand of judgment upon all the nations. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken—who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, who can stop him?”Jonah 1:3-4Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.Trying to stop God’s plans—or run from them—is futile. God alone knows the future, so no one can plan for the future better than he can.Psalm 76:5-8Our boldest enemies have been plundered. They lie before us in the sleep of death. No warrior could lift a hand against us. At the blast of your breath, O God of Jacob, their horses and chariots lay still. No wonder you are greatly feared! Who can stand before you when your anger explodes? From heaven you sentenced your enemies; the earth trembled and stood silent before you.Isaiah 41:11“See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and humiliated. Anyone who opposes you will die and come to nothing.”Jeremiah 50:24Listen, Babylon, for I have set a trap for you. You are caught, for you have fought against the Lord.Nahum 1:11Who is this wicked counselor of yours who plots evil against the Lord?Fighting against God is futile. Many people are confident in their earthly strength and power; but compared to the power that made the universe, they are insignificant.Psalm 10:11The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”Ignoring or hiding from God is futile. God knows our guilty secrets, and avoiding him will not remove our guilt. God doesn’t want us to hide from him in fear—he wants us to come to him honestly and repent so we can receive his forgiveness (Ezekiel 33:11).Ecclesiastes 4:7-8I observed yet another example of something meaningless under the sun. This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, “Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?” It is all so meaningless and depressing.Mere toil is futile. Work without purpose is activity without accomplishment, a tree without fruit.

Question 6

How can God deliver us from our futile ways?

Accepted Answer

Hosea 14:1-3Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises. Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made, ‘You are our gods.’ No, in you alone do the orphans find mercy.”Ephesians 5:10-11Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.2 Timothy 2:21If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.1 Peter 1:18You know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value.When we come to the end of ourselves, we will discover the beginning of God’s power. Only when we realize we are sinners worthy of judgment can we then confess and repent of our sins, accept God’s forgiveness and salvation, and become ready to be used by God. Then all futility ends and true purpose and fulfillment begin.

Futility