priorities

Haggai 1: 2-4

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?”

What are your priorities

I did an enneagram test at uni, I’m not a great believer in some of these things but there was one description on this test that is very accurate about me. It came back that I’m a 9 and one of the characteristics of 9s is as follows... Now, I’m not proud of it and I’m working on it, but I procrastinate... A lot and I’m sure my family will agree with me on this one. My priorities are often very messed up and this is what I want to talk about. 

Haggai 1: 5-6 says 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.”

Seriously consider the direction of your lives. Verse 2 says, ‘this is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” The people began to rationalise and decided that it wasn’t time to rebuild the Temple. “It’s not the right time, we can’t do it during this time, if it’s too hard then God doesn’t want to do it, at least not any time soon”, does this sound familiar? What exactly is keeping you from doing it? Are you using ‘time’ as an excuse for you to do other things, not doing what God requires of you? 

When it comes to important decisions, who will take priority in our lives? Is it our self-will or is it the will of God? Listen, God saw and heard the people’s excuses and poor priorities, and he sees and hears our excuses and poor priorities. Verse 3-4, “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?” They claimed it wasn’t time to rebuild the temple of God, but their actions said it was time to live in nicely rebuilt houses. They lived in such comfort and luxury while God’s house was in ruins. They put their own prosperity above God’s house. They were very content to let the cause of the Lord suffer at the expense of their comfort. And we do this too.

It is foolish to live for the things of this world, we know that these things will never give us the satisfaction they claim to give us. We will never find true happiness apart from God, Psalm 37:4, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” Despite this however, many of us keep drifting towards loving the world and pushing God to the side, making him wait. 

Remember the first time you made that personal commitment to God, you decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, the cross before you, the world behind you, no turning back. You read your Bible every day, you got involved in church groups, bible study, prayer group, worship team. Now, life has moved on, you’ve got a career, family, bills to pay… You’re in high demand and sadly, church and the Lord’s will has slowly gone to the back of your mind. God and Church has become a slice of your life, not the centre. You keep telling yourself that you just don’t have the time to serve like you used to, “It’s just not the right time, maybe next time.”

What you have done is rebel against God and you don’t even know it, you’ve put your needs and house above God’s house. You’ve put your will above God’s will. “Not your will God, but my will be done” That’s basically what we say when we don’t prioritise God. We always have an excuse to delay the things of God, for why we are not obedient to put God first with the time and money he entrusts us with. And you know something funny, some of us even use the Bible to support our excuses. God sees through our excuse, many of us are like those ancient Hebrews, we convince ourselves that the will of God can wait, it’s not that important at the moment but at the same time, spoiling ourselves and those around us. What about God’s will, what about God? 

We say we put God first but, what does our life say? You may not say that God is not first in your life but that when you look at your lives, that’s exactly what it's saying.

Matthew 15:8 says, “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” People who put their prosperity above God’s kingdom work so hard for food that perishes, but not for the food that endures to eternal life. John 6:27, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” If our priorities are wrong, nothing will satisfy us, we’ll drink but never be filled, eat but never be full. But nothing fills the God shaped void in your life except putting God first.

With Love,

Faith / Author (Upfront Faith / I Can't Embrace the Wilderness )