Grace for Your Day October 11

At the age of 53, John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire earning close to one million dollars a week. However, the money quickly ruined his health because he became overcome with anxiety and lived on a diet of crackers and milk until he began to give it away. Once he did that, his sanity returned and he lived until the age of 98.

Solomon describes a similar problem in the Book of Ecclesiastes. After describing the vanity of time and false religion, he says in 5:10:
The word for “satisfied” is the Hebrew term saba which means to be fulfilled or content with something. Solomon uses it here to say that money will not do that for you. No matter how much you make, it will not satisfy your soul because you were made to be satisfied in God. You were created to be fulfilled by Him, not by riches or gold.

This is something that Solomon understood very well because he was a wealthy man. First Kings 10:23 says that he was greater than all the kings before him in money or treasure. First Kings 4:26; 11:3 also says that he owned 4,000 stalls for his horses and he had 700 wives not counting concubines.

Yet with all of this affluence, it did him no good because it did not make him happy. It did not soothe his troubled soul which is a lesson that we all need to learn today because Chilliwack is becoming a wealthy city. Millions of dollars are being poured into the economy every month and many people are chasing after it because they think it will bring them joy. They believe it will satisfy their hearts which is a mistake as we will see this week at Grace Fellowship Church.

This Sunday, we are going to continue our studies in the Book of Ecclesiastes with a sermon entitled “Money, Money, Money.” This is a subject that hits close to home for all of us because we need money in order to survive. We all have to earn a living but, at the same time, we need to realize that it is not the most important thing. Money cannot buy you happiness because we do not serve the Almighty Dollar. We serve Almighty God as Ecclesiastes 5:18-19 says:
Satisfaction and contentment are gifts from God. They come to us from His hand and please join us as we learn this important lesson. Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and every beast of the forest is His so He is all that we need. I pray that our time in the Word would bring this truth to our attention in a memorable way. – Jeremy Cagle