Humans seem to get very uptight when something they value in this world is under threat of loss or when we have not yet obtained that valuable prize. I want to make a case to you that a correct understanding of life as a gift under the providential care of God can allow us to chill out and enjoy life with grateful hearts.
Five times in Ecclesiastes we see the repeated phrase, “God has given.” There are a few different contexts in which we see these words. In 1:13 God has given an unhappy business to the children of man who are fallen in nature and seek to understand the fallen world under God’s judgment. In 2:26, God has given understanding of this world to those who trust him while those who don’t will ultimately only know futility. In 3:10 God has given all times and seasons as the beautiful reality of his providence. In 5:18-19 we find that wealth and riches are that which God has given and can only be enjoyed in the context of that truth.
These repeated phrases are written in the context of all of the situations and seasons of life. It is impossible not to see that the author of Ecclesiastes (I believe, Solomon) is making it clear that everything we have from God, including the times and season and life itself, is a gift from God.
It’s so easy for Christians to ignore this fact, and when we do, we end up replacing gratitude with attitudes of want and entitlement. We also end up trusting other people, governments, and the resources and pleasures of this world for our contentment rather than God. This is a dangerous place for any Christian to be. It changes our desires, our definition of need and our rhetoric. When we forget that everything is given from God and then lose whatever it is that is so precious to us, our world turns into a tailspin of despair or rage. We have forgotten that God is the giver and ongoing provider of all things. Life is a gift, both the instance of life and everything in its living.
When we appreciate that every season and time of life and every resource and pleasure is from God, we live life as a gift. We can be thankful for what we have, and even what we have lost. We can be thankful in riches and in poverty, in gain and loss, under good government or bad. It is God who gives for our good, no matter what he gives and no matter how long he allows us to have it. We live with understanding knowing that God is in control and nothing in this world is necessary for my satisfaction because that belongs to God. I can enjoy his world because the world and everything in it is a gift. God alone is my need. When you say, “life is a gift from God” and mean it, your whole world changes.
To truly know that life is a gift, we also look to Jesus. We come into true life by grace – a gift (Romans 3:24). We can only know true life as defined in the forgiveness and mercy of the cross that crucifies us unto this world, and this world unto us. (Galatians 6:14). The life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and died for us. (Galatians 2:20). Life, true life, is a gift. It was a gift in Genesis 1, and it is a gift in the cross.
So, Christian, let’s not be so uptight about what you have or don’t have or what decisions are being made by governments, or what amount the share market crash took from your 401K balance. All of life is a gift and in God’s providence, the things of life, the times and seasons of life, and every matter under heaven is a gift of God and a work of his providential control. We can be thankful for whatever we have knowing we have it because of God’s providence. We don’t need the rhetoric of entitlement, ownership or want. We can chill out. Trust in the providence of your God and be thankful. Enjoy life in Christ, it’s a gift.