The Focus of Your Labours

“Our imagination is dazzled by the splendid picture.” Words almost seemed to fail Edward Gibbon in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, as he described the affluence of the Abdalrahman, who ruled Spain in the 8th Century AD.

The third and “greatest” of the Abdalrahmans admitted that he never lacked for anything, for “riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call.” He had thousands of wives and concubines. He gathered the world’s finest sculptors and artists to design buildings with overwhelming grandeur. The hall of audience “was incrusted with gold and pearls.” One of the basins and fountains in his gardens “was replenished not with water but with the purest quicksilver.”

But, looking back on his life, this man realized something was missing: “I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen.” Knowing that others might envy his accomplishments, he provided this warning: “O man! Place not thy confidence in this present world!”

How easily we can be consumed with a desire for wealth, power, and pleasure. But, as the Bible tells us, all of this is “vanity and striving after the wind.”

Today, pause to think about the focus of your labors. Jesus said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life” (John 6:27). Be sure you’re seeking “first the kingdom of God,” confident that He will take care of you (Matthew 6:33).