Priorities

Scripture: Haggai 1:2-11 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the LORD's house to be built.' "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?" Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have 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." This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD. "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."

Observation: The people are putting their own wants and needs above that of God. They are placing themselves first and what is happening is that they are not reaping as much as they would if they put God first.

Application How easy is it for us to do just that. We say that God is the priority in our life, that He is number 1 but our actions tell a completely different story. We spend our lives work, work, working and bring home very little because we have put ourselves above God. When we do that, our things, our money, our homes, our lives become our god and the True God is pushed down on the list of priorities.

Prayer Dear God, help me to always keep you my number 1 priority. It's so easy to allow you to slip down the list but when that happens my life seems to slip. Amen