Embrace the Bad

Ecclesiastes 1:3

     Here in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, the author writes in verse 3, "What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?"

  The Breakdown  

     Ecclesiastes is a book that can be directed toward the cynical or doubtful or such and such, so I think it would be interesting to study it. Let us begin. The verse is short, so we'll just go through it as one section. When the author says "sun" in the verse, He is referring to anything under Heaven, meaning the earth. Toil would be defined here as trouble, or fighting, or bad situations or circumstances. So what the verse is saying is "What does man get from all of the bad things that he fights with on earth?" In other words, trying to fight the bad circumstances, or trying to argue that what is happening to you is unfair, is pointless. 

     The Application

     The last sentence in the above paragraph almost sums up what the application of this verse is. There is no point in trying to argue or fight the bad that happens to us here on earth. We can't help what happens to us, we are in no control of what is thrown our way in life, only God is. And when God allows hard situations to come our way, it is our duty as Believers to look to Him for support and help. He won't leave us on our own, there is a lesson to be learned in everything that happens to us, whether good or bad. It will be a challenge, but it will pay off in the end. There is no satisfaction or good in arguing what cannot be changed, so embrace the bad and let God show you what He wants to so that something can be learned on our part.