Haggai 1
Scripture
Haggai 1:5-9
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 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.”
7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “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 your own house.
Observation-What does it say?
The book of Haggai was written by the Prophet Haggai. “God sought to warn the people to heed His words. Not only did God warn them, but He also offered promises through His servant Haggai to motivate them to follow Him. Because the people of God reverses their priorities and failed to put God in first place in their lives, Judah was sent into Babylonian exile.”
(Reference: gotquestions.org -Summary of the Book of Haggai).
Understanding-What does it mean?
It ALL belongs to God.
When I say ALL, I mean ALL…our money, our gifts, our talents, our accomplishments, our health, our possessions, our spouses, kids, families, friends….basically our whole lives! God has the power to give and He has the power to take away.
Moses and I are teaching our kids about tithing and are requiring them to give 10% of their financial increase back to the Lord as an act of obedience. Their tithe eventually goes back into our DSC kids church ministry. (Note: Our kids have already accepted the Lord into their hearts and were baptized, so this is not a legalistic rule we are putting on them—it’s a discipline and act of obedience that we are trying to instill in them as a child of Christ.) We get the moans and groans, but then we make them aware that God could ask them to return ALL of it since it belongs to Him anyway. This life begins and ends with Christ, not with them.
Life Application
Put Christ FIRST!
Do you want God’s blessing on your life, even beyond money? Do you want to be content and satisfied in life, living securely in the comfort of His love, joy and peace, no matter what circumstances you are faced with? Then put Him first in ALL areas of your life—finances, gifts, talents, possessions and people.
Dear Lord, this life is but a blink of Your eye. I pray that we would put our hope in things of eternal value and invest in what You want, not what we want for ourselves. I pray that we would build Your Kingdom instead of our own because our kingdom can be easily destroyed, while Yours is eternal. Amen.
-Michelle Gaddi