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VS. April 12, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on April 12, 2025


ECCLESIASTES 4:4 | 4 Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

 

The other’s centered life, based on service and love, is a life of limitless joy, in which every blessing others experience can be celebrated by you. The self-centered life, no matter the level of achievement, ends in disillusionment. Solomon won the competition in his day. Considered to be the paragon of wisdom, he ranked first in Forbes list of richest Israelites, and he was internationally famous. Yet, he described this level of personal success as finally a vain endeavor, a “chasing after wind.” Love and generosity and a character formed by worship and service, are God’s achievement that outweigh everything else. Material goods are passed on or decay, reputations fade into history, wisdom becomes stale as knowledge advances, but deeds of love and generosity last forever and prepare us for the eternal kingdom.

 

Do you know limitless joy?

 

 

Gracious God,

Help me build treasure in heaven and prevent me from chasing things that don’t last. Let me live a life centered on faith and service.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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