WORKING
ON YOUR HOUSE WHILE MY HOUSE LIES IN RUINS
by
Marilyn LaStrape
How
long has it been since you heard a sermon based on the book of
Haggai? Those two
chapters give us a lesson that is eternal in its message
throughout all the ages on the importance of setting the
appropriate priorities.
Haggai
is sent to tell the people of God that they needed to consider
their ways when he asked them the question, “Is it time for
you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this
temple to lie in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4 NKJV).
“You
looked for much, but indeed it came to little and when you
brought it home, I blew it away.
Why? Says the Lord of hosts.
Because of My house that is in ruins, while everyone of
you runs to his own house” (Haggai 1:9 NKJV).
The
devil is constantly recruiting by enticing us to believe that
we have plenty of time to work on God’s house.
To buy into that lie results in slow obedience, which
is no obedience, since ALL disobedience is rooted in unbelief.
Are
we still struggling with keeping our priorities straight? Jesus
commands us in Matthew 6:33 to seek the kingdom first and all
these other things will be added to us.
Do we believe that?
God
told
Israel
that He was going to blow away all that they had accomplished
because He was no longer first in their lives.
Did they believe that? Could that be the reason that
some things in our lives never get straightened out? “You
ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may
spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3 NKJV).
What
does God need to allow to happen to gain our attention in
keeping Him first? Solomon
said that worldly wisdom, pleasure, success, and money are not
the priorities. “Fear
God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of
man” (Ecclesiastes
12:13
NKJV). Do we
believe that?
Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is the goal of humanity
as a whole. How
to achieve that happiness is spelled out in Matthew 5:1-12,
but continues to elude the masses and sadly some of that mass
is in the church.
Most
of us would agree that perhaps the top four priorities in people’s
lives are family, job/career, possessions, and physical
appearance. These
pursuits are not new; the people of Haggai’s day were
working with all their might to get ahead.
God
has given fathers the responsibility for families to glorify
Him. Mothers are
an extension of that responsibility. “And
you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring
them up in the training and admonition of the Lord”
(Ephesians 6:4 NKJV). Too
often our priority is to educate them to become professionals
in a lucrative field.
However,
God says, “And these words I command you today shall be in
your heart, you shall teach them diligently to your children
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you
walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up”
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NKJV).
Man
has had to work since Adam and Eve got thrown out of
Eden
. Work is honorable among all. “For even when we were with
you, we commanded you this, if anyone will not work, neither
shall he eat” (II
Thessalonians
3:10
NKJV).
Jobs/careers
cannot become an obsession, excluding God. “For every beast
of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild
beasts of the field are Mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world
is Mine, and all its fullness”
(Psalm 50:10-12 NKJV).
We
live in an almost totally materialistic society.
The American dream is not fulfilled until our
possessions include that home, multiple cars, bank accounts,
vacation accounts, and the list goes on.
Do we believe Luke 12:13-21 when Jesus tells us about
the rich man that God calls a fool?
Did
we believe Jesus when He said, “Take heed and beware of
covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke
12:15
NKJV). “The
sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or
much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to
sleep” (Ecclesiastes
5:12 NKJV).
So
much emphasis from all forms of the media has been placed on
our physical appearance.
We jog, we exercise, we diet, we dye our hair, and we
have surgeries of all kinds in an attempt to keep our bodies
young looking.
“All
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
the grass. The
grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the
Lord endures forever” (I Peter
1:24
-25 NKJV). Our
physical appearance will eventually fade, falter and finally
fail. Do we
believe that?
Our
spiritual house must be constantly maintained through Bible
study, meditation, prayer, and worship.
We are only as strong as our knowledge of God’s word
and the power of the Holy Spirit working in us.
Solomon said it like this:
“I have seen the God-given task with which the sons
of men are to be occupied” (Ecclesiastes
3:10
NKJV).
Unbelief
causes us to be self-centered, shifting our hearts from
God’s priorities to our priorities.
The problem with this constant shifting is that
priority that we thought would bring us the ultimate happiness
is a shallow accomplishment at best.
The
embracing of this truth will provide unwavering belief that
will keep our priorities straight:
“While
we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen. For
the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which
are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is
destroyed, we have a building from God a house not made with
hands eternal in the heavens”
(II Corinthians 4:18 – 5:1 NKJV).
