Ready To Retire?

“If you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.” [Ogden Nash]

If you’re like me, you might have to read that statement a couple of times for it to sink in and make sense. Aside from receiving a large inheritance or winning a lottery (which for me would be a miracle since I have never bought a ticket) there is no way of getting around the need to work. However, if one works hard enough and long enough it is possible to retire at even an early age and then be able to sit back and enjoy a life of ease. Is that your goal for life?

Many people anxiously look forward to retirement. Perhaps some of these do so even before they have hardly begun to work. Then there are those who retire and have such difficulty figuring out what to do with their time they find another job. Still others become so fed up with the world around them they want to retire from life itself.

It is important to find something meaningful to do with our life. Without a sense of purpose, why live? Are we consciously seeking to find how whatever we do is linked to our relationship with God and what He has in mind for eternity?

As Solomon looked at life even in a general sense, he stated…
“(24) There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, (25) for APART FROM HIM WHO CAN EAT OR WHO CAN HAVE ENJOYMENT?” ( Ecclesiastes 2:24-25)

Young and old alike, we must bear in mind the ways in which our labors are to glorify God. Though the day may come for us to retire from whatever employment we have taken up, that is not to be the case with regard to the EMPLOYMENT OF SELF IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS. Our SPIRITUAL LABOR is to continue because now is the time for such since there is a night coming when no one can work. ( John 9:4)

What about retirement? The Hebrew writer encouraged…
“(9) So then, THERE REMAINS A SABBATH REST for the people of God, (10) for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (11) LET US THEREFORE STRIVE TO ENTER THAT REST, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.” ( Hebrews 4:9-11)

Let us continue to labor on in WORKS FOR THE LORD, knowing He will provide the time of rest. As long as we live in this realm our WORK FOR THE LORD is to continue. May we find fulfillment in carrying on HIS WORK with a view toward the retirement benefits God will ultimately provide that will truly be out of this world!

Have a great day POSSESSING A POWERFUL PURPOSE FOR LIVING!
Carl

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