Have you ever wondered if you and your Lord share the same priorities for your life? My prayer should be that how I spend my time and money and invest my efforts and energies each day will be aligned and in accordance with His priorities for my life. The alarm bells should go off when I discover a divergence in priorities and a disconnect with His will.
Uncomfortably, the prophet Haggai had to call out the misplaced priorities of God’s people. Our priorities reflect the actual condition of our hearts before God.
I wonder if some ‘inner fists’ were raised in the hearts of the audience when Haggai the prophet chided them in words to this effect:
"Get with the program! Your priorities are completely reversed. You're wondering what's wrong in your life —it's pretty obvious. You are living for yourself - me, my and mine! God is at the bottom of your pile. You are so wrapped up in your own little world you can't see the big picture. You've panelled not just the walls of your house but also extravagantly panelled your ceilings as if you were princes in a palace. Meanwhile, what's important to God you've left in shambles."
I heard a missionary mildly rebuke us for our apathy and materialism. Despite all our good talk and public prayers, he noted there was very little action. Immediately, I became defensive, and my inner fist was lightly — perhaps tightly clenched. “He’s not going to get anywhere talking to us like that! If he’s looking for support, this is one sure way NOT to get it!” But then I had to confess my sin. I needed to hear that message. And the Jews needed to hear Haggai’s message.
The Jews had been saying all along: “The time is not right to rebuild the Lord’s house. The timing is just off. We need to wait.” (Haggai 1:2). Meanwhile, they used their energy, money, and time to renovate, refurbish and embellish their own houses. God sent Haggai along to say to them: “You have built luxurious homes for yourselves, but My House lies in ruins. Take a good long hard look at your lives – and consider the waste. What really do you have to show for all your hard work? What does it all amount to? Consider your ways.”
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” 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. “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Haggai 1:2-9
Everything in my life that is not a priority for the Lord will be blown away as chaff in the final analysis. The years of our lives when we pursued our own goals feverishly, climbed our own ladders, made our own plans, and, with great commitment, executed them —everything in our lives that did not have the Lord Himself as the object will be burned up.
I may win top honours, earn first place, get offered plum jobs, hear the applause of friends and colleagues and have plaques to hang on my walls, but when I stand before Christ, and He asks me: “What in your life was done out of love for Me,”then all those things will evaporate and never be seen again—a bunch of nothings for eternity.
It’s easy to be a big fish in Earth’s little puddle, but how small it will all look when it is placed in eternity’s vast ocean.
These words of Jesus are still relevant today:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33