Saturday after Invocavit
Posted on February 27, 2021 by under
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:9-20 (NKJV)
5:9 Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them; So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun: Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14 But those riches perish through misfortune; When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a severe evil—just exactly as he came, so shall he go. And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
17 All his days he also eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.
18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. 19 As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.
Devotion
The devil’s temptations always involve lies of some sort. One of his oldest lies is that material riches and abundance will make us happy. In today’s reading, God unravels that lie.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, you will find that, if you love money, you will never be satisfied, no matter how rich you become.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, as your riches increase, so will your expenses.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, as your riches increase, so will your anxiety over holding onto what you have acquired.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, the more you hoard for yourself, the more susceptible you will be to misfortune and ruin.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, no matter how much you acquire, you will leave this world with none of it, and then you will face the true Owner of all things, to give an account of your stewardship.
Will you be happy if you get more money? No, in obsessing over riches, you will end up making your life on earth miserable.
So shall we pray for poverty? No. Be content with what you have. Pray for the ability to enjoy what God has given you, so that you do not “dwell unduly on the days of this life,” but “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1).
Prayer: O Lord, mercifully hear our prayer and stretch forth the right hand of Thy majesty to defend us from them that rise up against us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
