Overflow Daily...ish: Enjoying Gifts


24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the man who is pleasing in His sight, He gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner He gives the task of gathering and accumulating in order to give to the one who is pleasing in God’s sight. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. 

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 (ESV) 

At the time of this writing, Bill Gates, one of the richest men alive is worth an estimated $94 Billion. That is a lot of money! And, while that is an unimaginable amount of money, there was another man who was worth a great deal more. John D. Rockefeller is considered to be one of the richest persons in modern history. He was the first ever American billionaire and would have been worth $340 Billion today by one estimate; that is $246 Billion more than Bill Gates. One quote that I will never forget which is attributed to him came when a reporter asked him, “How much money is enough?” His response confounds me, “Just a little bit more.”

In Ecclesiastes 2, starting in verse 18, we read about the vanity of toiling for riches. And while it may be laudable for a person to work very hard in order to save up a small fortune for their children, it is no excuse for wasting your life. Solomon reminds us that we do not even know “whether [our successor] will be a wise man or a fool” (Ecc 2:19). To some this will bring them to the point of despair. They toil and work and labor in order to hand off their wealth to possibly an undeserving, foolish successor. And even the very act itself of accumulating a great deal of wealth frustrating in itself. As Rockefeller said it, “just a little bit more” will also be the cry for those seeking to be satisfied by money.

And so, what is the lesson to be learned? Contentment and enjoying the gifts of God. It is far better for a person to enjoy the life that God has mercifully and graciously given to them than to worry about how to increase your bank account. There are so much more important things to concern ourselves with anyways. These things will all rot away or be handed off to another person; we are to store up treasures in heaven. It is far better for us to enjoy the gifts of God and recognize that they are given from Him. That they are from the hand of God. Even though we may be tempted to the point of despair by the fact that death will come to all people and fortunes, no matter the size, will be handed off we can also experience joy. Joy knowing that we have eternal life promised to us by the Father through the Son by the conviction of the Spirit.

We can experience true joy when we no longer chase after the wind. Only when we turn our face away from self and towards pleasing the God of all creation, will we be able to truly enjoy God’s blessings. To truly enjoy life! In the end, the wicked may accumulate a temporary prosperity, but only the righteous will inherit one that is everlasting. As Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matt 16:26)

Grace and Peace,
-Pastor Alex

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