#DailyDevotion Wealth Can’t Fill The God Size Hole In Your Heart

Ecclesiastes 5:10–17 ¹⁰If you love money, you won’t be satisfied with money; and if you love property, you won’t be satisfied with the gains. This, too, is pointless. ¹¹When goods increase, there are more people to consume them. What advantage does their owner have except to look at them? ¹²If you work, sleep is sweet whether you eat little or much, but a rich person’s stomach is too full to let him sleep. ¹³There is a painful evil I’ve seen under the sun: riches hoarded by their owner only to harm him, ¹⁴and those riches are lost in bad business deals. Then he has a son with nothing to give him. ¹⁵As he came from his mother’s womb – naked — just as he came he will go back, and nothing he can carry in his hands will he take with him for his hard work. ¹⁶This also is a painful evil: just as he came so he will go away. What profit was there in wearing himself out for the wind? ¹⁷Yes, all his life he eats in the dark, with plenty of grief, sickness, and resentment.

False gods or idols have a way with them. It seems when we take one on we can’t get enough of them. Money or wealth is no different. If you love it, you won’t ever be satisfied with it and the same goes with property. What you have is never enough.

We have a gaping hole in our souls caused by original sin. Only the Living God, the God of Israel, Jesus Christ can fill it and we be satisfied.

But as for goods, when they accumulation of them is our god and we try to fill that hole in ourselves with things, it never is enough. It’s because they are created things. Solomon as he examined his own life and the accumulation of goods noticed this, when goods increase, there are more people to consume them. His only advantage was to just look at them.

Another problem was sleep. When you worked hard, you slept well whether you ate little or much. The rich man not involved in physical labor stuffed himself so he couldn’t sleep. Solomon noticed that the riches he hoarded and other rich people hoarded only harmed them. It didn’t give them peace. Often the rich lost their money in bad business deals and they had nothing to give their sons later. We came into this world with nothing and we will leave the world with nothing. We can’t take it with us into the realm of the dead. Solomon says that this is a painful evil. There is no profit in wearing oneself out for the wind. For those who love money and wealthy, who have made it their god whom they fear, love and trust their life is this: they “eat in the dark, with plenty of grief, sickness, and resentment.”

Now there is nothing wrong with money or wealth and possessing it. It is the love of it that causes all these ills. As for what we make and earn, there is a way of taking it with us when we pass away. First we must recognize our own sins, confess them and turn from them. Secondly, we must trust the LORD Jesus Christ died for those sins. He must be our God and he will fill that large gaping hole in our souls. Finally, we must give it away to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner and to those who preach the gospel, “you’ll have a treasure in heaven.” (Mark 10:21) It is good for your soul to show it you have contempt for your money and wealth by giving it away. It is in fact what Jesus has done for you on the cross; he gave away the store. All he has is yours now.

Heavenly Father, give us hearts that love you and have contempt for worldly wealth, that we may use it as you intend. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.