A Self-Made Paradise is Meaningless
Ecclesiastes 6
As we have been reading about different discoveries that the teacher has found and learned from we now see that he takes a look at what the American dream is; enjoying life by being rich, successful, and having paradise right now. As we see that the ease of the abundance of our possessions does not exist. We try to collect as many toys as we can and we think that makes us something. The mentality of, the one with the most toys wins, is full of a lot of flaws.
In this short chapter we see a couple of points such as without God, life is a waste; without God, cravings won’t be satisfied; and only through God is life explained.
What I Made will Fail
When I was younger I would build with my Legos and have fun. No matter how hard I tried to build my castle or whatever I was working on, it never compared to one in the pictures. I needed to follow the directions to get it looking the same. In fact some of them I made fell apart pretty quickly. I failed in the engineering of my Legos, the same way with our lives. If we try to build them on our own we will fail. Sure, some will be successful as they may be passionate, some may be rich as they could have drive and can handle money but ultimately they will fail. As we read about the teacher who was successful, had wealth, even a large family but we see that many people do not realize that they have been blessed by God and do not eve realize it. Verse 2 says, ” a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all the he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy it.” We need to realize that stuff, the materials in this life that can bring enjoyment are not our definition of joy. True joy comes from the Lord. That is how Paul was able to rejoice in the Lord while he was in prison. Paul lacked in materials yet was truly satisfied because of Christ.
We also have the tendency to think, we need more to stay satisfied. More food, more toys, more money, more power, and more success define our satisfaction. This is totally against what God has made for us in this life. We can only truly be satisfied with God. It is like filling up a car with water (which is not a good thing to do). If you fill a car up with water, it will ruin the engine, a car need gas. You can only fill the car up with gas then it will run. We can only truly be satisfied in Christ, if we fill up with pleasure, materials, or wealth we will end up broken, which should not be our ultimate goal. Without God, our cravings will never be satisfied. Verse 7 says, “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.”
This life that you want, is not necessarily what God wants. Remember, He is in control of all things even present and future. He has placed you in your circumstances for a reason. He wants us to be content with him and not possessions or even people. So if your goal is to build up your bank account and that is it or have the best car, or biggest house. You will not be satisfied and filled with the joy that God intended. You will only be truly satisfied with Christ as your Savior, surrendering all of you and not part of you that means even your money, your dreams, and what defines you!
