Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Working On All The Wrong Things


Have you ever wondered why it seems that you never get ahead? Why you're always working and striving for a better life but it just doesn't come your way?This was the problem facing the Israelites, God's chosen people. In Haggai chapter one we read:

Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.

God's people had built up their own houses and even had them paneled with expensive wood. They were opulent but the Lord's house was in ruins. It needed to be rebuilt but no one took the time to work on His house. They were so self absorbed that God came last in their lives. Because God didn't have first place in their hearts, He caused the crops to fail and brought other calamities on His chosen people. Why? Was it because He no longer loved them? Of course not. He brought the people to a place where they would cry out to Him for help. 

Are you in a hard place right now? If you are, examine your heart and see if God is in first place. If He's not, I would strongly recommend that you place Him there and see what a difference He will make in your life. 

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33


Life isn't about always striving for that next dollar or that better job. It's not about having tons of possessions or houses and lands. It's about placing God in His rightful place in our hearts. God can't be Someone we only visit at Christmas time and Easter. He wants us to make Him a priority and if we are willing to do that He will bless us abundantly. Where have you placed God in your life?




Haggai 1

New International Version (NIV)

A Call to Build the House of the Lord

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak,[a] the high priest:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”
Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord. 14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

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