People can find some satisfaction in working hard. We translate work into money, and we channel money into everything we think our hearts desire. But ultimately, we will always look for something more.
Money may buy abundant pleasure—it’s true. And proper pleasure is something God wants for all of us! After all, joy is an integral aim of His creation. But misguided pleasure generates a selfish appetite for more—grander experiences, bigger thrills, costlier adventures.
After desperately pursuing pleasure and purchasing all that money can buy, too many “successful” people ruminate and wonder why they’re still unfulfilled—why life seems so meaningless.
The deepest questions of their hearts remain unanswered: Why do I matter? Where will I find joy? What do I really want?
Of course, these questions are not new. They bothered people in bygone years as much as they do today. The author of Ecclesiastes even asked these questions through his experiences in antiquity.
This suggests that the struggle for meaning and fulfillment are not the products of circumstances as much as they are the results of a common human experience of dissatisfaction.
It is true that God “richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17). But why is it that people have difficulty finding that enjoyment?
It is because they forget the God who gives the things, and they substitute the things for God! People too often trust in temporal things that pass away, rather than in the eternal Lord from whom all things come.
So what are you and I to do?
We are called to work as an act of worship to the Lord, who gives us the ability to apply ourselves for His glory. And we are to treat our earnings as treasures that God has entrusted us to manage, so we administer these resources in a way that pleases the Lord.
When you have this attitude, you will discover that the purpose of life is not to make money, but to serve and enjoy the God who made everything!