Passage of the Day - May 6, 2011

Ecclesiastes 5:13-20

¹³There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.

 ¹⁴When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him.

 ¹⁵As he had come naked from his mother's womb, so will he return as he came He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.

 ¹⁶This also is a grievous evil--exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

 ¹⁷Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.

 ¹⁸Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward.

 ¹⁹Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

 ²⁰For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.

The key to life is enjoying the God-given fruits of our labor.  The key to life isn’t getting more and more fruit.  Any fruit beyond which one could enjoy should be given to another.  It is not wrong to have much fruit, but it is pointless to have more than is needed.  If we enjoy all the fruit that we have been given, we are thankful.  If we can’t enjoy all the fruit that we have been given, yet aspire for more, we are just greedy, covetous, and ungrateful.  God hates those attitudes.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)