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Friday, May 24, 2019

What’s The Meaning of Our Labor?

Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26
 
Focus verse:
Proverbs 23:4-5 "Do not toil to acquire wealth; be wise enough to desist.  When your eyes light upon it, it is gone; for suddenly it takes to itself wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven."

Here we find Solomon still stuck in a state of unhappiness.  He’s complaining about life and his labor.  He is unhappy because as he gets older he realizes that one day someone else will enjoy all his wealth and they didn’t work for it.  He wondered if they would manage everything well or poorly.  James 4:14 says, “You do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”  Our life on this earth is short, and Solomon looks back at his life and he hates it and all his labor.  Someone else is  going to have all his stuff, and this thought gives him even more stress about the value of his hard work.  
 
Solomon is saying when you live life without God being first in your life, you really have no purpose and everything is meaningless.  Verse 24 tells us that God wants us to enjoy our work and to enjoy our life.  And when Christ is FIRST in our life, all the pieces will fall into place, and life will be enjoyable and have meaning.  When we do our work with God’s perspective we will enjoy our work and it will take on new meaning.  
 
Extra scripture about why we work:
  • To make a living - 2 Thess.3:12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living.
  • To provide for our household- Proverbs 31:27 She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
  • To bless others Ephesians 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.
  • To Increase in wealth- Proverbs 13:11 Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, but he who gathers little by little will increase it.
 Bobby Johnson
Interlocking Ministries
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