#DailyDevotion Work, Riches & The Ability To Enjoy Them Is The Gift Of God
Ecclesiastes 5:18–20 18Now what I have seen to be good, yes, excellent, is to eat and drink and enjoy good things with all your hard work under the sun because that is your lot in these few days God has given you to live. 19Yes, for every man to whom God gives wealth and riches, He has also enabled him to eat from it and to receive his share, and to enjoy himself in his hard work — this is God’s gift. 20He won’t keep thinking how short his life is because God makes him work hard with a happy heart.
There is a good side to wealth. The LORD, the Living God, the God of Israel, Jesus Christ, does indeed wants us to eat, drink and enjoy good things from all our hard labor under the sun these few days he has given us life on the earth. To do so, Solomon says, is “to be good, yes, excellent.” Now this won’t happen if wealth, money and power are your fear, love and trust. He rewards us with the fruits of our labor so we may enjoy them. He also gives us more than we need to share with others, namely, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the foreigner in your midst, and those who administer the Word the of the LORD.
He tells us, “ for every man to whom God gives wealth and riches, He has also enabled him to eat from it and to receive his share, and to enjoy himself in his hard work — this is God’s gift.” To the first, God has enabled us who have been given wealth and riches the ability to eat from it and enjoy ourselves in our hard work. It is God’s gift to us to be able to do that. But we cannot do that if the accumulation of wealth, because we trust in it to solve all our problems and we love it, is our hearts desire. We should note to have wealth is riches is also the gift of God. He makes us partners in his creation to be generous towards those in need as he has been generous to us.
God gives us the wealth, riches, and the ability to enjoy them so we won’t keep thinking how short this life of ours is because God makes us work hard with a happy heart. He gives us the ability to enjoy the work he has given us to do. Yet, we won’t if we don’t see it as a gift from God. We will now enjoy our work and our wealth if we don’t give thanks to him for it through Jesus Christ and use it for the purposes for which it is given. Whatever we put our hands to we should thank God for the ability to do it. When it is profitable, we share with those whom God has not blessed as much as us and we become a blessing to them. As Paul says in Eph. 4, “work hard, doing something good with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need.” He says in Romans 12, “Share what you have with the holy people who need it. Eagerly welcome strangers as guests.”
We are reminded by Paul in 2 Cor. 8, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ — He was rich, but became poor for you to make you rich by His poverty.” Yes, though he possessed all creation at the right hand of God, Jesus emptied himself, took on human flesh, served us by becoming the atoning sacrifice for our sin, died our death, rose and ascended to the right hand of God giving us the gifts the gospel and those who preach it, so we may be rich in eternal life, righteousness, holiness, and his glory, now and in the world to come. What are earthly riches and wealth with fall so fleetingly through our fingers compared to the gift of God we have in Christ Jesus. So treat wealth with thanksgiving but also contempt compared to the grace we have received in Christ.
Heavenly Father give us the gift of the fruits of our labor and our ability to enjoy them as we receive them through your son Jesus Christ with thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.