If there is no God, then nothing matters and all of life ends in meaningless despair. But if there is a God, then everything matters and everything has meaning. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes closes his book by pointing us to duty of mankind to fear God and keep His commandments.

We will face plenty of disappointments in life, but the good news of great joy for all people is that Jesus has come that our joy may be full. When we rejoice in and remember our Creator, we will truly be able to enjoy life the way God intended it to be enjoyed.

The world will give us plenty of reasons to be anxious. But it is precisely because of the uncertainties of life that we must use every opportunity to be bold but wise with what God has given us.

We need wisdom to be able to navigate our way through life. The problem is that we often find ourselves more foolish than wise. In these verses, we discover that our hope is not in our ability to be wise, but that our hope is in Jesus.

God has promised us true enjoyment of His good gifts through Jesus. Until Christ returns or calls us home, we are to enjoy life and to do so with thankfulness.

Though we live in a world tainted by sin, God has given us wisdom to know how to live. We must obey what we know to obey, enjoy what we can enjoy, and trust in the God who holds tomorrow, even when we don’t know what tomorrow holds.

When we see good people die young and wicked people grow old, we can be tempted to try harder to be more good, or abandon the Christian life altogether. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes, however, encourages us to trust in the goodness of God and to put on the true righteousness of Christ.

When the day of adversity comes, it can be easy to try and distract ourselves from the reality of life's agonies. But the Preacher of Ecclesiastes is encouraging us to embrace our limitations and trust in the sovereign God in control.

God has given us a few days on this earth. Will we use up our days pursuing wealth and riches that will not ultimately satisfy, or will we wake up every morning with the goal of enjoying God in everything and enjoying everything in God?

We can be thankful that we have a God whom we can approach in reverence. We can be thankful that, though God is in heaven, He is not so distant. And we can be thankful that we have a Saviour in Jesus Christ, who has made a way for us to be saved from the penalty of our irreverence to God.