Learn to love your lot in life

ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 5

Solomon gives people many ways to treat their relationship with God. He tells them to keep their eyes and ears open in the house of God and keep their mouth shut. Don't give mindless offerings to God and don't make rash promises to him. If you make a promise to God, follow through with it. For God takes no pleasure in fools. Keep all promises to him. It is better to say nothing than to promise something you won't follow through on. In such cases, your mouth is making you sin.

God says that dreaming all the time instead of working is foolishness and there is ruin in a flood of empty words. Fear God instead.

If you see a poor person oppressed by the powerful and justice being miscarried throughout the land, don't be surprised. Matters of justice get lost in red tape and bureaucracy. And those who love money will never have enough. The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So perhaps the advantage of wealth, says Solomon, is watching it run through your fingers.

People who work hard, sleep well. Rich people are always worrying. Riches are sometimes hoarded to the harm of the saver. People who live only for wealth come to an end naked and empty-handed as on the day they were born. Solomon noticed that it was good for people to eat and drink a good glass of wine and enjoy their work. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life - is a gift from God. People who do this, rarely look with at the past in sorrow, for God has given them reasons for joy.

BIBLE NOTES SHOW: Solomon warns people about making rash promises. Vows in the Israelite culture were taken very seriously. Once made, they were unbreakable. It was better not to vow than to make a vow to God and break it.
God wishes us to view what we have in the right perspective - our possessions are a gift from God. But we should focus more on God than on our gifts from him and we should be content with what we have.

HOW DOES THIS CHAPTER RELATE TO US TODAY? As humans, we always want more. That hasn't changed over the centuries, has it? But money never helps you find the happiness you want to achieve. Only God can do that. Money in itself is not wrong, but loving money leads to sin. Can we in today's world find the focus that Solomon found? Can we not view the fact that everything we have - all our possessions come from God. And they can be a source of joy and cause us to rejoice because every good thing comes from God. Focus on the GIVER not the gift!

Yours in Christ,
Mary

Prayer Requests are needed for:
HEALTH: Pray for Gabe.
Pray for Janice Long’s parents, especially her mother who faces another round of chemotherapy and her father with Alzheimer’s and now her mother in law also with Alzheimer’s. Their family is feeling the strain both emotionally and financially. Pray for them. Update on this family: Her mother-in-law is being taken to Oklahoma to live with an aunt who will care for her.
Pray for Arlene’s nephew David and for my neighbor Al who is nearing the end of his life.
Pray for Carolyn’s brother Ronald who has cancer and for her sister Wanda’s soul which went to heaven.
Pray for our friend Michelle who was diagnosed with MS.
UPDATE on Barb who went in for back surgery and had a heart attack and stroke, she has her speech back and is home , but continues to have a problem with one arm and hand. Thanks to your prayers, she is able to hobble without a cane and has been granted disability. She still has surgery scheduled on her hand, but I saw her recently and her attitude is fantastic.
Pray for Robert Sargent who is quite ill with lung cancer.
Pray for Gary Summers, my friend from church, who has cancer.
Pray for Judy’s husband who was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Pray for her too, that she can deal with the side effects of his illness.
Pray too for Charly’s husband Robert who is undergoing chemo for his prostate cancer. Update on Robert: he has one more treatment and then three months of waiting for his psat test to come back clean.
Pray for John’s recovery from a heart attack and for the doctors who have difficulty diagnosing his other symptoms.
Pray for James’s sister Cynthia whose chemo has lost its effect as the cancer grows powerful.
Pray for another friend named Carolyn whose faith remains strong, but is lost and confused about where and how to spend her elder years.
SPIRITUAL UPLIFTING: Gail, Mary
RESTORATION OF FAITH: Al, John
LOVE AND SUPPORT: Claire, Hunter, Brian
SUPPORT: Haiti, Chile, survivors of Japan’s earthquake, survivors of the devastating tornadoes in our southernmost states and Joplin, Missouri. Pray too, for our country’s leaders and our military people who die each day for our freedom.