Work- A Blessing!

Ecclesiastes 2:24 - New International Version (NIV)

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

If we look at work as a means of gaining wealth or making a name for ourselves, we will eventually agree with the writer of Ecclesiastes that all labour is “vanity and grasping for the wind” (2:17). But if we see it as a part of God’s plan for a purposeful life, it will build strong character and a better world in which to live.

The 19th-century British author Charles Kingsley wrote, “Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being required to work, and doing so to the best of your ability, will breed in you self control, diligence, contentment, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know”.

Consider what these three people gave to the world by working with diligence: Noah Webster labored 36 years and crossed the ocean twice to produce his dictionary; John Milton rose at 4 O’clock every morning to compose and re-write his poetry; Edward Gibbon spent 26 years writing his famous history, The Decline and Fall of The roman Empire.

What we do may seem insignificant by comparison, but if we work “heartily as to the Lord” (Colossians 3: 23), He will use our labour to provide for our needs and the needs of others. Any kind of wholesome work can be a blessing.