Haggai states to put God first
12/28/2018
Haggai 1:2-5 (KJV)
2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built. 3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
As I was studying my Sunday School lesson this week it dawned on me how appropriate it was for the last Sunday of the year. The lesson is on the book of Haggai, both chapters.
This is the time of year that people are interested in making New Year Resolutions; and to do that you have to think about what all you have done this year; and what you could have done to make it better. Here in Haggai, we read about how the Israelites had moved back home and found their homes and God’s Temple had been destroyed.
Like most good Christians today, the Israelites started on rebuilding and repairing the Temple. Then they let their day-to-day life take over and become more important than rebuilding the Temple. We today, if we are not diligent, will let anything and sometimes everything come between us and the Lord and want He wants us to do.
The Israelites had a good prophet in Haggai, because he brought God’s Word to the people and called them to task about how neglectful the people were of God. Today so many pastors are more concerned about not offending the people who come to church then they are about offending God and not reminding the people about what God wants of them. We have pastors that want to tell only the “good” things from the Bible. Such as how God is a loving God, a kind God, a peaceful God and so on and so on.
God does love His people, then and now, and to show that love God will bring it to our attention that we are neglecting Him. One of the ways that it is brought to our attention is God withholds blessings from our lives. When we put God first in our lives, we are blessed so many ways, however when we demote God from being #1 in our lives our blessings disappear from our lives.
If you are the type of person to make resolutions on New Year’s Day make it one that places God in the #1 position and keep it. I would like for all people to put God’s will first in all areas of their lives. If every person that professes to be a Christian did this for all of 2019, I wonder how different this world would be this time next year.
C.I. Wilson