Build God's House!

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    Time. Don't you wish there was more of it?  I often think of how much I could get done if we just had a few more hours in a day! Mercifully, God is not limited by time.  He gives us an allotted time on this earth (we don't know what that time is) and is watching to see how we use the time He gives us.  As my children grow, I am finding that next to the gospel, the most important thing that I can teach them is to prioritize Jesus in their hearts and lives.  

    Haggai is an itty, bitty book in the back of your Old Testament.  It is only two chapters long!  God gave the prophet Haggai a message and it boils down to this: "Ya'll forgot about my house!  Fix it!" (Those are my words, not God's, in case you were wondering!) 

    You see, these Jewish people had been exiles in Babylon. They had returned to their homeland and started building for themselves some pretty nice houses. It had been eighteen years, but they had not even started rebuilding God's house.  It was still in a heap of ruins.  Now, the crops were failing and things were not as rosy as they had dreamed of.  God uses Haggai to point out to them that they had their priorities in the wrong place... God's house needed to be fixed before they built nice houses for themselves.  Haggai 1: 2-4 lays it pretty clearly:

Thus says the Lord of hosts: "These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord." Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?"

    Was God telling them that it was wrong to have nice houses?  Not at all.   However, it was wrong to neglect God's house. It should have been the priority.  

    So, how does that look for us today?  Is God saying, "Ya'll better build a big, fancy church before you work on your own house!"  Wrong again.  God does not dwell in a building and His glory is not confined to the Holy of Holies as was symbolized in the Old Testament.  

    God dwells in us! We are His Body, His church, His dwelling! Ephesians 2:20-22 tells us:

...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

    We are to be shaping and building our lives to be vessels for the Living God.  That means He is to be our priority in EVERYTHING! Every aspect of our lives, from the food we eat, the books we read, the entertainment we allow ourselves to relax with should be filtered by this overarching truth.  Do we think about honoring God with the clothes we wear, the vacations we take, our every conversation? He wants to be all consuming.  He wants to fill us with His glory because He abides -- lives, dwells -- in us! 

    We will find that as we make Him our priority, we will receive blessing.  He looks for obedience and He is looking for a dwelling place for His glory to rest.  Am I willing to build Him a dwelling in my heart?  He promises to be with us and provide everything that is needed.  He promises to give the strength to complete the task He calls me to. 

    Once our priorities are in order, the rest will fall into place. The nice houses and comforts are not wrong once God's place in our hearts is settled.  God desires all of our hearts, not just a little corner.  He wants us to trade our desires for His. Then, He can work through us.  

    What are my priorities?  Will He find me faithful?

I pray that we will be found faithful to build His House today!

💓 Heather Sparks💓

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