Tag: daily devotional

Diversify your Investments and Give Generously (Ecclesiastes 11)

On By pastorjonathanIn Devotional, discipleship4 Comments

Ecclesiastes 11

Solomon tells us to cast our bread upon the water.  He is not stating that we should literally go throw bread out at the lake, but rather this is probably a shipping term.  In Solomon’s day comerce would take grain and goods from one country to anther via the shipping lanes (on the water).  Yet, they didn’t have weather tracking systems and sometimes ships would go to sea never to be heard from again.  But, often ships would make it to port.  Sell the grain and goods and bring home a hefty profit.  Solomon says it is better to go ahead and invest in many places than place all your eggs in one basket (so to speak).  You don’t know where the hurricane will strike, the oil leak will emerge, or the demand for 8-tracks will hit rock bottom.  However, one thing is sure.  If you stare at the sky and try to calculate the weather and never invest, you won’t receive a profit (11:4).  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  So invest in lots of places and spread out the risk.

I think the application here is for more than how you are going to manage your retirement portfolio.  Sometimes we can be paralised by the obstacles ahead of us.  Your sitting there staring at the sky looking for the right conditions.  You don’t know the future.  The only way to live life is to take some calculated risk.  Things will not always work out according to your plan.  Better to attempt something great rather than use the excuse that you were just waiting for the right moment and it never came.

Make investments where it really counts. Be generous in your relationships.  Give to others.  Be a good friend, a good spouse, a good parent, open your home to others, show grace, forgive, look for opportunities to share Jesus.  Don’t be disappointed if you are not immediately met with success in these areas of your life.  Cast your bread on the water.  Live soberly knowing that one day we will all give an account to God (Ecclesiastes11:9).

Real Failure Comes From a Lack of Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 10)

On By pastorjonathanIn Devotional, discipleshipLeave a comment

Chapter 10 is much like Solomon’s speech to the graduating class.  Its a reminder that God is sovereign, people should be humble, and that apart from God’s wisdom you will make a mess of your life.

I know a man who lived well and for a majority of his life he trusted God.  Yet near the end he became a fool and made some bad decisions.  We are all only one bad decision away from ruining it all.  It’s not how you start the race its how it ends that matters. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)

Sometimes we meet resistance in life just because we are foolish.  There is story I once heard of a young man who wanted to be a lumberjack.  He was younger and more athletic than the other lumberjacks in his crew.  He showed up to the forest the first day and made the claim that he could chop down more trees than anyone else on the crew by the end of the week.  So they went to work and sure enough the young and athletic lumberjack was leading the way and cutting down trees almost twice as fast as the rest of the crew.  Eager to make his mark on the lumberjack world he worked through his lunches and while the other guys took a break. Somewhere around mid-week things began to slow and the young and athletic lumberjack was cutting fewer and fewer trees.  Finally by the end of the week he had cut the least amount of trees and the foreman had to let him go.  On his way out of the camp he went up to one of the older men who had been cutting down trees for years.  He said, “I don’t get it.  I am stronger and faster than anyone out here.  I never took breaks.  I worked through lunch.  How did you cut down more trees than me?”  The older lumber jack simply replied, “I took time to sharpen my axe.”  Sometimes it’s not about how hard you swing or how fast you are.  Sometimes as the old business proverb goes, “Work smarter, not harder.” (Ecclesiastes 10:10)

Application:   Where do you need wisdom in your life? There are decisions that you need to make in your life right now.  Some of them are somewhat small and inconsequential (like what will you eat for lunch).  Others of them really  matter.  Like what kind of husband, father, son,  or leader will you be.

Problems in Paridise (Ecclesiastes 3)

On By pastorjonathanIn Devotional, spiritual disciplinesLeave a comment

Ok here is the drill. I’ve been keeping up with chris aiken’s blog. He posts his devotional thoughts in real time via his daily blog post. So somewhere between 6-7am you can catch his thoughts.

I wish I functioned like Chris does in the mornings. I post earlier in the morning before I go to bed (it’s around 12:30 as I write this). There is a lot more to it than that, but it should explain why I post earlier than my good friend and pastor Chris Aiken.

Everything has it’s time
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-15)

This is a sobering reality in the world in which we live. God has a plan and a purpose for everything. This makes God a little difficult to understand when we are hurting in the short term. We wonder at how God can take the bad things, even evil things and use them for our good (Genesis 50:20). We wonder, “how can God cause anything good to come out of this?”

Quite frankly that’s how this week started for me. Sunday from sun-up to sun-down I was dealing with the darker shades of life. Many of the situations were well beyond my control.

Solomon’s advice here is to not let what “we cannot know destroy what we can enjoy” (Tommy Nelson). God is good and ultimately what He decrees will prevail, even through short term pain (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

There is a time for everything and God is good. Ultimately his goodness will shine through, even on the darkest days.

Application:
How do you handle it when bad things happen? Are you quick to blame others for your circumstances?

What are your thoughts on Ecclesiastes 3?