Ecclesiastes 5:18: Enjoy Your Life

Ecclesiastes 5:18.. "Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot."

So often in Christianity we often think that God and the commands of the Bible make life boring. However, is that really what the Bible teaches? I believe not. Let us look at this great verse in Ecclesiastes to see how we ought to in fact enjoy our life.

See what the great author of Ecclesiastes says here: "what I have seen to be a good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils..." This certainly does not seem like your typical "Christian" message, but it ought to. The author of Ecclesiastes here is showing us the great enjoyment that can even be found in the "mundane" think of like such as eating, drinking, and working. In fact, he even commands us to enjoy these things, as God has given them to us in his own purpose and plan.

Note the end of this verse: "for this is his lot." "Lot" is a term that we often don't use, so let us discuss what it means. With a quick google search [which, I don't recommend doing for effective Bible study, but I have an 8 A.M. employee meeting this morning so it will have to do] one can find that the term "lot" here refers to "a person's condition in life, particularly as determined by fate or destiny." A person's lot is what God has soveriegnly appointed to him. In this verse, we find that God has sovereignly appointed that each one of us enjoy our lives. Isn't that amazing? God is a loving God who, even in his common grace, wants us to enjoy the great things that he has created for us on this earth.

So, how are you doing with enjoying your life? It's a great and wonderful command, is it not? But are you obeying it? So often we wallow in our sorrow and pity instead of taking hold of the great joys of God an his creation. So, if that is you, I encourage you to get off your butt and "smell the roses" (to quote the Travelocity Gnome, if I may) and enjoy the wonderful things that God has given you in this great (and short!) life.