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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.
Ecclesiastes 2:17-26, 3:9-10
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I have a confession to make.
I am a workaholic. It’s been a disease I have had for many years now. If there was a twelve step program for it, I should have been placed in it a long time ago.
The Navy sort of created this workaholic beast that is within. Serving your country is definitely not a 9-5 job as any member of any service branch would tell you. We work long hours to get the job done, as many hours as it takes no matter the time of day. Maybe only a mother tending to children could relate. Just ask my youngest who spends her day tending to children ages 6, 2 1/2, and 1 1/2. Talk about hard work!
Well, maybe I could have been healed from my compulsive urging to work and work a lot if I had just read today’s scripture passage from Ecclesiastes a little earlier in life. It’s not really a call for people to stop working and just be lazy but rather a reality check regarding the end result of all the toiling we do “under the sun”. Take a look at Solomon’s words:
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
Note here that if we don’t handle our working lives properly, work can turn from being a blessing from God to being grievous. We can begin to resent it even hate it. Maybe you’ve been there, completely disliking work to the point you dread getting up and going in. Maybe you’re there today.
In these cases, your focus centers on your work. It is the object you center on and it brings your loathing, stress, and even grief. You find yourself always thinking about it, even when you’re not working. It begins to occupy your thoughts, even sometimes your dreams. It can be maddening.
So how do we deal with this? How do we combat the urge to work our lives away or deal with the negative emotions that can rise up from work that fails to satisfy?
We keep our eyes on God, the One who blesses us with the opportunity to work, the One who provides for our needs, the only One who can truly bring us wisdom, knowledge, and happiness.
Often times, we work hard to attain stature in the workplace but eventually we will not be in our positions anymore and someone else is going to take our place, What obligation do they have to continue the great work we may have done before they took over? Or maybe they have assumed the level of professional achievement you worked so hard for. They get to enjoy the fruits of your labors even though they had no part in producing those fruits. And maybe, just maybe, they will take over and ruin everything you have worked so hard to accomplish.
Can you see where Solomon might say that toiling is meaningless? After all, what do you intend to achieve for the long haul through all your labors? Status? Wealth? Experience?
The word of God today is trying to help us put our labor into perspective. We are blessed to work but it should never overshadow our focus on the God who gave us the blessing. Nothing we earn while working here on earth will go with us when our lives end. Even the sinner who labors minus accepting the righteousness God offers will find His wealth given to those who chose to live for God in their lives.
So the question we’re facing today is simply, “Where do you place your priority in life?”
If it’s in your work, then your priority is meaningless. And as we have seen in our prior devotions on the theme of meaningless things, anything of this world that would take our focus away from the eternal life that awaits us In Jesus Christ, the only One who can bring us to God our Father (John 14:6), is meaningless as well.
Maybe we would be well served to remember these words from a long standing praise and worship song:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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