WHAT ARE YOUR PRIORITIES?
'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. '
Proverbs 3:5-6
Our humanity is such a frail form, because of that it is often a weighty expectation for us to hand out our trust. It is hard to trust in people who we can see and touch, how much more in an invisible God? The word translated trust, really means to ‘lie down on’. God isn’t asking us to partially trust Him, but to put the full weight of our lives and hearts on Him. In order to be able to walk with clarity, we must be able to put aside our own reasoning and understanding and bring an intimate relationship with God into everything we do.
If we are to achieve things at the level of our potential, we will have to become so heavily God focused that everything we do is about HIm, that no longer are the things we do done from the place of self. It is essential to learn how to become God focused in our priorities before we move.
WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING
In the book of Haggai, a remnant of the Israelites have been back in Jerusalem for 16 years, and the city is still in ruins. as many returned, the burning thing on their hearts was, ‘How will we rebuild our lives?’ Everyone had been focused on rebuilding their own homes. The word of God comes to the Prophet Haggai saying,, ‘How can My people say its not yet time to rebuild My house yet they are building fine houses for themselves.’ The funny thing is for all the focusing on their own houses and their personal lives the people were still not satisfied, they were like dogs chasing their own tales.
'Now, the Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.” '
Haggai 1:5-6
This scripture reminds me of the world today, I can imagine everyone desperately focused on making their lives work and not being satisfied, but they look at others and convince themselves, based on the appearance of things that everyone else is happy and at peace. It’s like social media today, we are desperately chasing self satisfaction based on the illusion everyone else is living the dream life, but as long as everyone was trying to find peace by satisfying their flesh, no one was satisfied. Food wasn’t enough, drink wasn’t enough and money went out as quickly as it came in.
Peace wouldn’t come for the desperate remnant, till they shifted their focus from building their houses to building the House of God. In the act of intentionally, genuinely seeking God’s Kingdom, making Him the priority of our lives, He draws every resource we could ever need far beyond the measure of our desires or our imaginations.
In bother vere 5 and verse 7 of Haggai 1, the word of the Lord warns the Israelites to “Think Carefully about [their] ways”.
Take time this week to truly reflect on your ways, to bring them before God become aware of your motives and in all your ways consider Him.