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Putting Possessions in Perspective
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Ecclesiastes 5:19 If God gives some people wealth, property, and the power to enjoy those things, they should enjoy them. They should accept the things they have and enjoy their work – that is a gift from God.
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Download audio fileDo the things that you buy make you happy? Consider your last impulse purchase. You had some money in your wallet or your purse, or perhaps you hadn’t yet used up the whole limit on your credit card, and something … caught your eye. It tickled your fancy and in an instant, you decided in your heart that you just had to have it.
So think about that last impulse purchase for a moment. Bottom line – how much of a difference has it really made to your life; to your peace and joy and contentment?
“Oh, come on Berni, you’re just being a party pooper. You have to lash out and have a bit of fun from time to time, surely!”
Some people think that believing in God means that you have to give everything away. That somehow, to be a good Christian, you have to be as poor as a church mouse. And yes, God commands His people to give sacrificially, in a way that actually costs you something.
And yet still, He gives us the things we need and wait for this, listen very carefully, the things that He does give us, He means for us to enjoy.
If God gives some people wealth, property, and the power to enjoy those things, they should enjoy them. They should accept the things they have and enjoy their work – that is a gift from God. (Ecclesiastes 5:19)
I used to wonder why it was that nothing I bought for myself ever made me happy. Now I know the answer. It’s because “stuff” on its own, just can’t make you happy. It’s hollow, it’s empty.
What God’s saying here is that the enjoyment of those things doesn’t come from the things themselves, it comes from Him. Here it is again. They should accept the things they have (no not feel guilty about them, accept them!) and enjoy their work, because that is a gift from God.
By all means, first and foremost, be generous and give sacrificially. Give radically. Give in a way that if other people knew how much you’d given, they’d be shocked. Absolutely. But those things that God does allow you to have, accept the blessing from His hand and enjoy it.
“Stuff” in and of itself doesn’t make you happy. The enjoyment of it though, is a gift from God.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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