Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways” ~Haggai 1:5 (NIV)
In the book of Haggai, God confronts His people to reevaluate their priorities. His people had slipped into a place of putting God and His agenda on the “back burner” so to speak. As they honored their children, parents, friends and their own agenda with their time and resources more than they honored the Lord they began to regress. In Haggai 1:6 God tells His people “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.” (NIV) God allowed discontentment to come into the lives and hearts of His people to open their eyes to their sin of not honoring Him first. It is imperative to give careful thought to our ways if we want to enjoy our lives and the blessings the Lord has given us. Notice the Israelites had food, they had drink, they had clothes and they had jobs. They weren’t lacking in substance. They were lacking in the ability to enjoy it. What good is having everything you want or need and not having any satisfaction in your life? When was the last time you gave careful thought to your priorities? How do you spend your money and your time? What preoccupies your thoughts? What are your primary goals in life? Those are all questions that take careful consideration.
Our first and foremost priority should be spending time with God. Time with the Lord gives us wisdom to accomplish more with less effort. It’s how we enter God’s rest and cease from struggling and striving. When we pursue anything more than we pursue God that “anything” becomes our god. It is idolatry and whatever that “anything” is that we have made a priority above the Lord will not end up being a benefit to us. Eventually, it will become a curse to us because we have allowed it to have way too much room in our heart. That doesn’t mean we can’t have hobbies, friends, and jobs, it just means we need to have the right perspective about them. God and only God should have the seat on the throne of our hearts, He is to be our greatest pursuit because He is our greatest love. His will and His word should be the final authority in our life and for that to happen we need to spend time with Him to know what His will is for our life. If you have put God on the “back burner” to pursue your own plan, you might find that you have become self-centered. Self-centered people are self-indulgent and self-indulgent people are some of the most unhappy people you will ever meet. Being self-indulgent will drain a heart of gratefulness because it drains everything around us in our quest for more. When we are self-indulgent, we lack the boundaries necessary to help us build character. If you find yourself weary, lacking enjoyment from all those things you worked so hard to buy or even feeling like you have wasted your time and energy trying to accomplish something God never intended for you to do…consider your ways. It is never too late to make the necessary changes to put God back on the throne of your heart. Make God and His will your treasure, He has already made you His!
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~Matthew 6:21 (NIV)
Do you struggle with self-indulgence?
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