Meaningful instead of Meaningless

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

MEANINGFUL INSTEAD OF MEANINGLESS

Eccl 2:17-26

7 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. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the man 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.

NIV

Well, there is it, all the efforts of man are not only meaningless, but filled with grief. What value is life without a relationship with the Lord? Zero, nada, nothing! To spend all that effort in gaining all the possessions we can, and to store up as much money as we can, and then die and leave it all for someone else to control seems sort of meaningless. There has been since the beginning of father and son that an inheritance was valued, at least to the first son. The second or third received nothing, it was all about leaving everything to the firstborn son. Today we still have that kind of mindset. We work and slave away all the days of our life so we can leave something for our children. Why, should not they work for their life as we did? What we leave behind they could squander away, spend on foolishness, or they could be wise and add to it for their children and they then could squander it. It just does not make sense to Solomon why that is of value. The whole idea of striving for material gain drives some to an obsession about not having enough, so much so, they cannot even sleep at night without worry. Solomon, the wisest man who has ever lived says that is meaningless. The reason is because that kind of man does not know God and cannot trust in him for his life. The best thing we can do is just enjoy our life, enjoy the food we have, the drink we have and to be content and find satisfaction in doing a great days work. In fact we are told to do our work as to on the Lord. All we have and all we do is for the Lord and is because of the hand of God. He brings us to the place we are to be, to work and to enjoy that work. To sit at the table and enjoy the food supplied by the hand of God. Oh, we say, we worked for it, but our work is from the hand of God, so then all we have is from the hand of God. Without God there can be no enjoyment, just more concern for where the next meal will come from. No enjoyment in labor either, just stress, worry, discontentment, an anxious heart which brings nothing of value into life. When we live to please the Lord, every day is filled with joy. He gives us gives us wisdom, knowledge and happiness, which are of great value. As of yet, we have not seen a sinner who has stored up his wealth hand it over to us, but then we still have days ahead of us, and it could still happen. One never knows, but that is not what our days are about anyway, looking for the sinner's wealth. Our days are filled with life in Christ. We cannot go through a day without thinking and talking about him. We cannot spend a day without worshiping him within our heart, and with our voice. We contemplate his plan for us each day, we desire to see his work in our life. We hate it when we fail him. We hate it when we yield to some temptation. It is upsetting that we fall short of perfection. But we are still captive to this body and that is why we have Jesus interceding for us before the Father. Because we are in Christ, God sees us as holy and blameless. This is the reason we can live with a joyful heart. This is why we can enjoy our life as it comes from the hand of God. Because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior we have pleased God, and as we remain in Christ we continue to please God each and every day. His love for his creation never diminishes. He desires all of his creation to come to that saving knowledge about Jesus. But here we are, living a meaningful life in Christ, serving our Lord, doing his bidding, living from his hand, enjoying every day he has given us. Loving him and loving the life he has given us, living content, satisfied, fulfilled, living blessed. Meaningful rather than meaningless.