Day X

Haggai 1:2-13
2 “The LORD of Hosts says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt.”
3 The word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” 5 Now, the LORD of Hosts says this: “Think carefully about your ways:
6 You have planted much but harvested little.
You eat but never have enough to be satisfied.
You drink but never have enough to become drunk.
You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm.
The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.”
7 The LORD of Hosts says this: “Think carefully about your ways. 8 Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified,” says the LORD. 9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined[d] it. Why?” This is the declaration of the LORD of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
10 So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops.
11 I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, olive oil, and whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all that your hands produce.”
12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.
13 Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, delivered the LORD’s message to the people, “I am with you”—this is the LORD’s declaration.

After considering the Sunday School lesson from this past week from Haggai 1:2-13, I am grateful for the reminder to get the First Things First in my life. I have realized that my time lately has not been well spent, and that I have been incapable of accomplishing my goals despite multiple attempts and many hours set aside to do so. In this realization, I have also had to acknowledge that I have not given God His due time either. It has been easy to conclude that the passage from Haggai applies to me directly where Haggai challenged the Israelites for having taken care of their own homes without attending to the House of God. In Haggai’s reminder, he points to the ineffectiveness of Israel’s labors, and declares that it is their own fault that God has kept them from being fruitful or productive – because their priorities have not been correct since they abandoned re-building the temple. In fact, God had a direct hand in “blowing away” their successes, because of their misapplied focus. As I considered this, I remembered the period of my life where I lost so many of the important things in my life – my family, my career, my self-worth; and acknowledged then and now that this was due to my “misapplied focus” on the God of “me.” That was a scary and painful part of my life, and the reminder was scary too as I realized I was doing the same things again: “not ordering God in my life, ahead of the personal affairs of my own life.” So today, I am resuming my daily study and devotion. I am admitting that I have been sinful in my selfishness and in the mismanagement of my time. I must return to the process of rebuilding the Temple of God in my life, and make sure that I am focusing rightly on God “first.” I understand that only then will I be fruitful in the other areas of my life, because I can honor God according to His right place at the head of my priorities. And not to ignore the significant motivation of past precedent: I know that the Lord can just as easily take away all that He has given. How worthless would that so very painful lesson from my past be if I repeat that same process again. I must honor God, and deny myself. Where I acknowledge sin in my life, I must fight to defeat it – by honoring God first; and constantly re-build His temple in my life.