Reading your Bible for Today April 25

April 25: Ecclesiastes 4:4-8

KJV Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 4:8
8 There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

Devotion:
The more we have, the more we want, the more we get the more we need... This carries on to such an extent we become selfish and that selfishness leads to meanness the result of which is evil in one way or another. In theory, when we have others around us, they give us a sense of worth or of balance and we should be able to avoid selfishness if we take their feelings and needs into consideration.

There are many ways of getting to the selfish point in our lives. We can lose focus on God's way in our lives, losing focus on His will as well as His ways. When we do, that focus has to go somewhere and more often than not it is directed towards the things we do or the work we do. The more we focus on the work we do, the more we lose focus on other things in our lives. The more focus we lose on our lives, the less important other things seem to become until the point is reached when we no longer seem to care for them. It is an easy road to walk and our society even seems to promote it saying that it makes better business sense!

When we gain focus on ourselves and lose focus on God we tend to push ourselves even further away through the ways we act and the things that we do. The only ones who are going to lose out will be the ones who cannot keep up or the ones who are weak and heavy laden! Guess what, those are the friends and family around us who need us the most! God does not want us to bury ourselves in work or earthly issues because He knows that we will lose sight of the things in life which are important! He knows our minds will slowly put His word behind us until we get to the point where we are focusing on other things instead of on Him. How is He going to be able to help if we are walking in the other direction?

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you work hard?

Where is your focal point in life – towards God or away?