"Misplaced Priorities" New Year’s Spiritual Inventory - December 26 Readings: Haggai 1-2

 

A New Year's Spiritual Inventory 

Today's Reading: Haggai 1-2           

Due to the length of the passage, it will not be copied here. 

Through the Bible Readings: Zechariah 7-8, Revelation 17, Psalm 147:8–14, Proverbs 31:17–18 

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional: Misplaced Priorities        

Haggai is one of those little books in the "Minor" prophets we often ignore. That is a shame because the message of this minor prophet is major! Another year is ending. We don't know how long it is until the world itself ends, but we know we are one year closer. This world and everything in it has an expiration date.  Haggai reminds us to live today with priorities that recognize that God is more important than anything in this world. 

If you see a house on fire, you don't run into it hide all your valuables there, do you? You remove them! You try to salvage what you can. In the same way, as Jesus said, we ought to store up treasures in heaven because whatever we invest in here on earth is going to rust, mold or burn.

A youth pastor I knew gave the best illustration of life I ever heard. He rented a limousine and took his small youth group out for a night on the town (in Cedar Rapids). He took them to a fancy restaurant, to museums, to all kinds of expensive places. Finally, he took them to the gates of Mt. Trashmore, Cedar Rapids' dump. He said, "Everything you saw today ends up here." Wow.

That's how we live our lives, isn't it? We devote ourselves to this world, which is destined to be destroyed, while we ignore the things of God. It is the worst investment decision any of us could ever make.

Haggai was a prophet to the people of Israel who had returned from exile in Babylon. They had come back to the land with the intent of rebuilding the Temple and reestablishing the worship of Yahweh. But, of course, they first had to erect places that they could live in and walls to protect them. Suddenly, it was many years later and they were living in comfort while the Temple still lay in ruins. They continually procrastinated. "The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt." (Haggai 1:2). They had become so devoted to their own comfort and prosperity they had no time to build a place of worship for the Lord. 

God's patience with this procrastination was at an end, and he sent Haggai to warn the people, "Think carefully about your ways." They were living with (borrowing from Revelation 18) Babylonian priorities. Their minds were on their own comfort and convenience and they cared little for the things of God.

There are consequences to that. We could call it the Curse of Misplaced Priorities. When we invest ourselves in this world, we bring certain natural consequences, designed by God, upon our lives. Look at what God said through Haggai in 1:6.

You have planted much but harvested little.
You eat but never have enough to be satisfied.
You drink but never have enough to become drunk.
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.”

There is an inverse proportion principle at work in the kingdom of God. Jesus mentioned it often. "He who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will save it." What you seek is not what you get. "Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you as well. Here, the more you invest in your own life, the less you will have of peace, satisfaction, and contentment.

The less you focus on your own things and give attention to the things of God, the more you receive of peace, satisfaction, and contentment.

There are five statements there that describe the dissatisfaction, frustration, and futility of life with misplaced priorities. 

• No matter how much work you do, there is little return (eternally) on your investment. In the kingdom, a grain of mustard seed moves mountains. With misplaced priorities, we can barely move the mustard seed!
• The next three speak to satisfaction and contentment. When you invest in this world, it's never enough. Ever eaten a meal so good that you didn't want to eat again for a month? Of course not. The things of this world never satisfy for more than a moment. You eat, but its not enough. You drink, but you want more. You put on clothes, but you are still cold. This world offers fun and good times, but not satisfaction. 
• Finally, misplaced priorities produce lost opportunity - what might have been. You stick money in a bag, but the bag has a hole. The money goes away and you don't get to enjoy it. You had it all, but you squandered it. I hate writing this, because boy-oh-boy have I been there! But it is a marker of misplaced priorities that you squander the opportunities and blessings that God gives you. 

There is a solution, though. Build the house of God. In the OT, that was a building on a hill just above the City of David to the north. But we are the Temple of the Living God today - both individually and as a church. We need to build the church and we need to build our lives as sanctuaries of God's presence. Cleanse it. Honor God's presence. Make the sacrifice (well, honor the one Christ made) and devote yourself to the service of God. 

Father, I have seen so much of the Curse of Misplaced Priorities in my life - work without return, dissatisfaction and lost opportunity. Cleanse my heart as your sacrifice. I thank you for the sacrifice made for me once for all by Christ. Consecrate me, Lord, for your service. 

Give Careful Thought to Your Ways :

No, this is not a plea to begin a new building fund at the church - that would be doing violence to the meaning of this passage. 
This is about misplaced priorities. 
What are you living your life for? 

• Is your life devoted to God and eternal things? 
• Or are you devoted to money, fun, self, pleasure, advancement? 

Whose pleasure and applause means most to you? 

• Do you care most about pleasing God and receiving his "well done?" 
• Do you please people to receive their applause, admiration, and affection? 

What is the reward you seek? 

• Eternal and heavenly reward - the treasures Jesus promised in glory? 
• Earthly and temporal reward - the things of this world? 

Do the "curses of misplace priorities seem a reality in your life? 

• Do you work and work with little return on your investment? 
• Do you find little contentment and satisfaction in the things you do? No matter what you get you want something else? 
• Do you seem to squander the opportunities you have? 

Will you take time to "Give careful thought to your ways?" 

Hymn of the Day: 

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;

Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,

Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;

Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;

And run not before Him, whatever betide.

In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,

And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,

Each thought and each motive beneath His control.

Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,

Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

William D. Longstaff