"Don't be surprised if you see a poor person being oppressed by the powerful and if justice is being miscarried throughout the land. For every official is under orders from higher up, and matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy. Even the king milks the land for his own profit!
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth - except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
People who work hard sleep well, weather they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night's sleep.
There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one's children. We all come to the end of our lives as naked and emptyhanded as on the day we were born. We can't take our riches with us.
And this, too, is a very serious problem. People leave this world no better off than when they came. All their hard work is for nothing - like working for the wind. Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud - frustrated, discouraged, and angry.
Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun during the short life God has given them, and to accept their lot in life. And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past." (Ecclesiastes 5:8-20 NLT)
"In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily: be thou my strong rock, for a house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me and guide me." (Psalms 31:1-3 KJV)
Sometimes it might take a couple of serious falls, just to get our attention; but no matter what this life has on this earth, whatever it is that we are taken down by, it will not destroy our hope or the promise we have for eternal life with the Lord! Call me whatever you want, but I am totally convinced that God does not abandon His children. He might take away some things that are causing us to lose sight of Him; He might bring us into situations which cause us to call out to Him; He might even completely turn our lives upside-down; but He will never abandon us or cast us away!
To make sense of some of what Solomon is teaching, we might be better off if we remember that he is talking about life under the sun; which basically means, life here on this world; a world that is fallen and without God, has no hope...
"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21 KJV)
No comments:
Post a Comment