Readings for today: Haggai 1-2
I talk to a lot of people who want to know the secret to a well-lived life. They spend their days searching for it. Their lives are filled with lots of activity that they hope will help them achieve the “good life” however they define it. But, at the end of the day, it seems forever out of reach. Just over the horizon. Just beyond their grasp. They never quite make it happen. Why? They are searching in all the wrong places. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” All these things? What things are we talking about? All the things that make up the good life. The blessings of God. Favor with the people. Deep, intimate relationships. Abundant provision. These are the things God promises to those who seek Him first.
Sadly, we too often put the cart before the horse. We flip flop the clauses of the verse. We seek first “all these things” and put the Kingdom of God on the back burner. And we are not the first to make this mistake. This is what happened to the people of Israel in the prophet Haggai’s time. They focused on themselves. Homes. Fields. Crops. Herds. Trying like crazy to make life work in the new land they had returned to after exile. They didn’t attend to the things of God. They didn’t value the worship of God. They didn’t put God in first place in their lives and this was demonstrated by their neglect of the Temple. So God confronts them. “Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” (Haggai 1:3-6) Their lack of provision. Lack of blessing. Lack of favor was a direct result of their unwillingness to seek God first above their own welfare which is why they never seemed to make any progress.
Sound familiar? I cannot tell you the number of couples I know who are stuck in their marriage. I cannot tell you the number of parents I know who feel stuck when it comes to their kids. As I look around our nation today, it seems clear to me that we are “stuck” in a rut of our own making with no hope of escape. What’s the answer? Turn to God. Surrender. Relinquish. Let go. Seek Him first. Follow His ways. Commit yourself to serve Him with all that you are and all that you’ve got. It’s the only answer I know and it breaks my heart that so many choose to remain stuck in their ways. If only they could lay hold of the promise Israel received through Haggai, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:3-9)
Readings for tomorrow: Zechariah 1-7