Friday - October 7, 2016

Woodlawn Family Bible Study
FRIDAY

BIBLE READING:  Ecclesiastes 2:18-26

 Do you ever feel like you’re a little hamster, running as fast as you can on that wheel in your cage? You just run and run and run, but never seem to get anywhere? I have two jobs, a wife, and three kids who are involved in many extra-curricular activities, and it seems as though I am always working to get to the weekend. Then, when I get there, instead of things slowing down, they only seem to speed up. I often feel like that hamster, and I don’t think I’m alone. 

 Solomon described this feeling when he said, “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 2:18-23, ESV). 

 Application: So, what is the answer? Maybe instead of putting all of our efforts into things that really don’t matter, we should focus our efforts on things that will last beyond this life. You will probably still feel like that hamster, but at least this time you will get somewhere. 

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