JAN 19 

Ecclesiastes 2:20-23
Memorise1 Corinthians 15:10
"Yet I laboured more abundantly then they all…"

DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVES OF LABOUR (II)?

This hatred of his labour, led Solomon to despair of all the labour which he had taken. He was sorrowing without hope! Note the repeat of the phrase ‘under the sun’, emphasizing that these were works which he had done apart from God. He despaired because of his own helplessness, and what he perceived to be the unfairness in life, of how a man who would labour hard in all wisdom and knowledge and equity, but yet another who had done nothing to deserve anything at all would receive all these works as inheritance. This Solomon saw as vanity and great evil!

In fact, so grieved was Solomon, that he said that not only were his days sorrow and grief, but even at night, his heart could not have rest. The reason for this grief was because the focus of his labour was all wrong. It was a very self-centred labour, where the focus was on the results of it, and how that can glorify himself. He was therefore very much fixated on how the fruits of his labour will be used, and whether the person enjoying it is deserving or not. And therefore he concludes, that such excessive labour, where one build and accumulates for the purpose of pride and recognition, is indeed vanity, and an empty waste of his life.

Yet for us we have to realize, that all that we have is from God, even the labour which we are enabled to do is solely by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10). Therefore we are never to take ownership of our own achievements and accomplishments, but rather to thank God and give all glory to God for them. What God gives, he also has every right to take away, and who he deems right to award your labour to, he has every sovereign right to do so. There is no need to despair and fret over who enjoys the fruit of our labour, for we are not labouring for ourselves, but we are labouring for God! Thus like Paul, we ought to have the attitude whereby we strive to ‘labour more abundantly’, and remember that we can only do it by God’s grace. As we labour for the Lord, it is a joyful work, for we seek for heavenly rewards, which we know our all-wise father in heaven will certainly give us one day.

Thought: Work for the night is coming!
Prayer: Lord, help me to be a good Christian student, to be able to work hard, labouring for Thee.