Don’t believe the
adverts. Getting more stuff doesn’t
satisfy. The pleasures of a new purchase
soon wear off. So, how then can we find
satisfaction? The end of the fifth
chapter of Ecclesiastes show us.
1.
If you want to be satisfied, ask God how
you can serve him today (5:18)
‘Then I realised that it
is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his
toilsome labour under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for
this is his lot’ (5:18). Life is short
and work is hard, but we can have satisfaction in the ordinary.
We can find satisfaction
in toilsome labour. Don’t just plan for
the holidays. |Don’t live for weekends. Enjoy your work, whether that work is in or
out of the home.
It would be tempting to
take this advice and tell you that if your job doesn’t satisfy you then find
another one. Sometimes that is the right
advice to give. But remember that in
Solomon’s day there was no such thing as career guidance. If a lad’s dad was a carpenter, then he
became a carpenter. If his dad was a
fisherman, then he learned how to fish.
Daughters had even less choice about what to do. The key is not finding the right job but
finding the right attitude towards your job.
When Rick Warren wrote
his book, ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, it sold millions of copies. It became a New York Times bestseller. It pointed to the unique satisfaction that
Christians can have in all that they do.
We live as people who know that even if our earthly employer does not
appreciate what we do, our heavenly Father sees. He delights in our honest labour. We can also serve him in how we rest and
work, in our workplace and our homes, and amongst our family and neighbours.
One of my favourite
verses in the Bible tells us that, ‘we are God’s workmanship created in Christ
Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Ephesians
2:10). If you want to be satisfied, ask
God how you can serve him today!
2.
Nothing robs us of satisfaction quicker
than comparing our lot with others’ (5:19)
‘Moreover, when God gives
any person wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his
lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God’ (5:19).
Money and stuff might not
be the key to satisfaction, but that does not mean we cannot enjoy money and
stuff. God kindly enables us to enjoy
many of the good things in life. Rather
than always striving for promotion, he enables us to be satisfied with our lot
in life. To enjoy our work is a gift from
heaven.
Nothing robs us of
satisfaction quicker than comparing our lot with others’. It is called ‘the comparison trap’. If you are not satisfied with what you have,
don’t assume that you would be satisfied with what someone else has. There will always be people to envy. There will always be people who seem to have
it better than you. Ask God to help you
trust that he knows what you need.
A woman passed through
the most tragic year of her life. She
was in her early sixties. She had been
with her husband on holiday in Spain, when he simply dropped dead. She soon found out that the man whom her
husband had trusted to look after their investments was a fraudster. She lost all her wealth. She had to sell her house in order to exist. She moved into a much smaller place and
sought to pick up the pieces of her life.
Yet this woman struck those who met her as the happiest person they
knew. Her serenity was not
superficial. She felt her loss. She hurt.
But she knew that God was in control.
God was what mattered to her and he could be trusted. She knew that in sickness or in health, in
poverty or in wealth, God was her satisfaction.
Being a Christian gives
us a special reason to be satisfied with our lot. For we know that God is working all things
for our good—which is not that life would be easy, but that we are being made
more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). Few
people have had life a more difficult than Job, yet he was able to look back
and see that God was at work in his suffering.
He knew God better as a result of all that he went through. He declared, ‘my ears had heard of you, but
now my eyes have seen you’ (Job 42:5). James
tells us to consider it pure joy whenever we face trials of various kinds,
because God is using these to make us complete (James 1:2).
3.
Satisfied people don’t live in the past or
the future, they enjoy today (5:20)
The French philosopher,
Pascal, wrote: ‘Let each of us examine his thoughts; he will find them wholly
concerned with the past or the future.
We almost never think of the present, and if we do think of it, it is
only to see what light it throws on our plans for the future. The present is never our end. The past and the present are our means, the
future alone is our end. Thus, we never
actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be
happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.’
Solomon tells us that the
satisfied person seldom reflects on the days of his life, ‘because God keeps
them occupied with gladness of heart’ (5:20).
‘When people discover the richness of life that God has provided, they
do not think much of the past, or even talk about it. They do not talk about the future either,
because they are so richly involved with savouring life right now’ (Stedman). As the rather corny saying goes, ‘yesterday’s
the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.’ Besides, the good old days weren’t always
good, and the future might not be brighter.
Look at the words
‘gladness of heart’. They are a pointer
to how kind our God is. In the book of
Acts, Paul and Barnabas are is an area of Lystra and Derbe. They heal a man who is lame and so the people
want to worship them as gods. Paul and
Barnabas object. Paul explains to them,
yet God has not left himself without testimony, ‘He has shown kindness by
giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with
plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy’ (Acts 14:17). These words were spoken to a wicked people
who would subsequently stone Paul, drag him out of their city and leave him for
dead. God even blesses his enemies with
gladness of heart! ‘He causes the sun to
rise on the evil and the good; and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous’ (Matthew 5:45). Our God is
immeasurably kind.
Conclusion—Satisfaction
and dissatisfaction should lead us to God
Why does God allow people
to enjoy life? He blesses the
undeserving to bring us to repentance.
The apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome asking, ‘or do you show
contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realising
that God’s kindness leads you towards repentance?’ (Romans 2:4). We are supposed to see the gifts and turn our
hearts to the giver. We have been
selfish and ungrateful, but Christ has died for our ingratitude.
But then in chapter six
we have the most difficult verse of our reading. ‘God gives a person wealth, possessions and
honour, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable
them to enjoy them and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil’ (6:2). How could God be so cruel as to give a person
all that this world offers and yet prevent them from enjoying them? ‘Simply so that we do not depend on false
crutches and worship false idols’ (Tidball).
Our dissatisfaction in life points us to the only one who can satisfy
the emptiness in our lives.
So, if you want to be
satisfied, be determined to enjoy your work, don’t compare your life with
others and live in the present (rather than the past of the future). But most importantly, grow in your knowledge
of the giver of satisfaction, for God ‘you have made us for yourself and our
hearts are restless, O Lord, until they find their rest in you’ (Augustine).
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