The Other 12 | Haggai

Here are few questions for you to consider today. 

• What matters most to you? 

• What are your top priorities for your life? ​
• What is your life being invested in currently? 

If you are like me, there have been times in your life when your priorities changed. There are many times when momentary situations shifted my life priorities or investments. For instance, when Barb and I left for seminary I went back to being a student and our “immediate focus” was paying the tuition, studying, being a new dad and working my two jobs. I did ok with this but as I look back, I can clearly see that I didn’t focus on being a husband as I should have. I need to confess based on this analysis that I took Barb for granted and didn’t invest as I should have in our marriage. 
 
I can also easily see that my values and priorities through most of my twenties can simply be summed up in one word – ME! My life looked “positive and orderly”, but I have no doubt that God would not feel the same way. God’s Word and His ways were clearly on the back-burner. I was busy making a name for myself and enjoying the “good things” in life. I went to church on a somewhat regular basis to see some of my friends and to stay “connected” to my Christian identity claim. My life was easy, enjoyable, fun and just what I wanted. I was totally lukewarm toward God. He loved me too much to leave me there! 
 
The Book of Haggai is written to confront the problems that come our way when God takes a backseat in our lives. The people of Israel had clearly put their own desires ahead of a desire to love, serve and worship God. They were brought back from the Babylonian captivity to their homeland through the declaration of the Persian King Cyrus. They were set free to celebrate God’s deliverance, but the Israelites decided there were a few things to do that were more important than worshiping God. 
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The Israelites would probably argue that they were just being practical and taking care of their families, etc.… but God clearly saw it differently as we can see as we read Haggai 1. 

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” 
​3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” 
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways…” 
 Today God gives us the same mirror to consider our true motives and priorities. We are tempted to give God the leftovers, if we give Him anything at all. We are tempted to worship Him joyfully…well, if things go our way. Many of us are going after life without God’s perspective and then we wonder why we feel empty or stressed out. It seems a good idea to me, that if we want to know how life works best, we should check in with the one that created the whole thing in the first place. 

In Christ, 
Pastor Nick