December 20
Haggai 1:1-2:23 | PS 139:1-24 | Prov 30:15-16 | Rev 11:1-19
"I want the Lord to come, but first I want...". But first might be: but first I want to get married, have children, have grandchildren, go on a specific trip, etc. None of these things are bad things, in fact, they are good things, pleasant things. But everything on earth is dust. Here today, gone tomorrow. We focus and desire too strongly on these temporal things. What truly is our desire, Jesus Christ, or something else. It really is an either/or, it can't be both. Jesus said in Matthew 6:27, "Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? " (NIV). He then goes on to state in 6:33, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
This is not a new problem. We read God's rebuke through the prophet Haggai, in Haggai 1:2-4, " “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.” ’ ”Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?”" There is certainly nothing wrong with fixing up your house. But there is something wrong when that is your primary desire. We read in Haggai 2:6-7, "“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts." Everything temporal will indeed be shaken. But He will come a second time, and this prophecy will be fulfilled when He takes up residence in Jerusalem, in His temple.
They had no desire for Him. How about us? We might say the right things, but God knows our hearts and our minds. We read in Psalm 139:2-4, "You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether." So, with that realization, may we all come to Him as in 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting." Haggai had that right balance. It is easy for us to beat people up for their sins, or to simply give warm and comforting messages. We, God's priests, God's ambassadors, need to strike that right balance of correction and encouragement. We are all prone to wander, but we make Jesus, and encourage others, to desire Him above all else.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: