“And it is a good thing…to enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—that is this indeed a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy” (Ecclesiastes 5:19b-20 NLT).
We’re taking our cues this time from King Solomon, whose life experience reaches beyond what most of us will ever know. Much of Ecclesiastes is a cynical lament about life of the privileged, gifted, and disillusioned. Yet Solomon proclaimed the virtues of the simple life, one where men and women, aware of what God gives them in the present, receive these gifts with gratitude.
Some Bible versions I checked shed additional meaning about satisfaction and joy contained in these verses: “For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart” (v. 20b NASB), or “…because God [Himself] answers and corresponds to the joy of his heart [the tranquility of God is mirrored in him]” (The Amplified Bible), or “For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life…” (20a NKJ).
From this it seems that those who brood are unhappy souls. Other places in Scripture tell us to acknowledge God in the now and let Him make our spirits glad. Without comparison or complaint, we can have gratitude, which itself, is a gift. The opposite is reflecting on the disappointments, the slights, and harboring a grieving heart to our own, and often others’, misery.
Solomon, also the author of Proverbs, was a wise man, though one who perhaps didn’t take his own advice. By his own admission, he searched for meaning in pleasures and other pursuits, endlessly, and came up empty. He became an expert in “vanity,” and his life is an object lesson for any who will listen. The simple, satisfying life is the “still life.”
Prayer for Daily Life
Father of all our days, look with us on each one. Where there have been challenges, let us find help. Where there have been sorrows, let us know comfort. Give us grace to be content in our “lot” and find satisfaction in what You provide. Teach us to labor with You and have joy in our work. Show us those gifts that cannot be matched by anything the world offers. Make us grateful.
Wise Words
“For Thy mercy and Thy grace constant through another year, hear our song of thankfulness, Father and Redeemer, hear…
In our weakness and distress, Rock of strength be Thou our stay. In the pathless wilderness, be our true and living way.
Keep us faithful, keep us pure, keep us evermore Thine own. Help, o help us to endure; fit us for the promised crown.” -Henry Downton, 1818-1885
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