Why is everyone hungry for more? “More, more,” they say. “More, more.” I have God’s more-than-enough, More joy in one ordinary day Than they get in all their shopping sprees. At day’s end I’m ready for sound sleep, For you, God, have put my life back together. (Psalm 4:6-8 MSG)
Materialism. It seems as though in America today people define their happiness based on what they have. Working harder and harder to make more money. Spending that money on things you don’t even have time to enjoy. Trying to keep up with the latest and greatest. Everyone else has it!
Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors… (Ecclesiastes 4:4 NLT)
But the pursuit of things can be endless. When you finally get the thing you were striving for, a shiny new thing catches your eye and the feverish pursuit begins again.
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! (Ecclesiastes 5:10 NLT)
And this chase never satisfies… You never quite have enough. Someone always has more. And this feeling of falling short causes discouragement and frustration that saps us of the joy God is trying to give us.
Throughout their lives, they live under a cloud—frustrated, discouraged, and angry. (Ecclesiastes 5:17 NLT)
God wants to give us good things. He wants us to enjoy the fruits of our labor as gifts from him. (Ecclesiastes 4:4)
But he doesn’t want us to spend so much time worrying about it that there’s no enjoyment in the pursuit. If we took time to stop and be thankful for the amazing gifts God has already given us, we might realize we’re not missing as much as we think we are.
Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind. (Ecclesiastes 6:9 NLT)
We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. (Ecclesiastes 5:15 NLT)
Our time on earth is just a blink of the eye. What matters most is where we’ll spend eternity. And we can’t bring any of our earthly riches with us. But the place that God has prepared for those that have put their faith in the redemption of Jesus Christ will be full of riches that we can’t even imagine.
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT)