Christian Devotional – March 12, 2025

Wisdom Squandered, Day 7

Are we jealous of others? Read Ecclesiastes 4:1-6.

During Solomon’s reign as king, he was involved in a tremendous amount of building projects throughout the entire Kingdom of Israel. He created and built a number of different structures and they were able to do tremendous amounts of things. So solomon appeals to all of his labors as a way to determine whether or not he feels successful and finds purpose.

Ultimately, what he finds is that this doesn’t give him any better sense of satisfaction than anything else he’s tried. This verse, verse 4 makes an interesting statement. The verse gives the idea that all the work and toil and struggle that we put forth is really motivated by our envy and jealousy of others we see around us. That is a convicting thought.

Why are we striving so hard to attain the things that we are trying to attain? Do we wish we had what others had? Are we jealous of others? Are we trying to become like other people? This focus on what others have will only lead to frustration and anger. God wants us to be focused on him and to be pleased with what he provides us.We don’t need to spend our time and money and energy chasing after other people’s dreams.

Dave Ramsey often makes the statement that we spend money we don’t have to buy stuff we don’t want to impress people we don’t like. Solomon echoes this statement here. Our focus is to be on pleasing God and him alone. Our drive to do things should never be based on a motivation of jealousy or envy.

Why are we motivated to get up and do things in the morning? How can we make sure that motivation stays focused on God?

Video devotional can be found here: https://youtu.be/U5WnyeDNeFM