APR 19

Ecclesiastes 2:20-23
Memorise 1 Corinthians 15:10
“Yet I laboured more abundantly then they all…”

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’, emphasising 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 laboured hard in all wisdom, knowledge and equity, only to give the fruits of his labour as an inheritance to another who had done nothing to deserve them. This Solomon saw as vanity and great evil!

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

What we need to realise is 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. Instead, we should thank God and give all glory to God for them. What God gives, He also has every right to take away, and He has the sovereign right to award the fruits of your labour to whomever He deems right. There is no need to despair and fret over who enjoys the fruits 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. When 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.