GOD AND OUR PRIORITIES
“Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son o Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord” (Haggai 1:12, NLT ).
At crucial times in history, the voice of a single person has moved people to action. The speeches of Winston Churchill saved Great Britain in the Second World War with phrases such as, “We must built a sort of United States of Europe…All we need is…to do good instead of evil, and receive as our reward blessings instead of misfortunes.» Martin Luther King fought to end racial discrimination with his famous words, «Our generation will not lament the crimes of the perverse as much as the chilling silence of the good and be have learned to fly like birds and swim like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together like brothers and sisters.»*
The exiled had returned twenty years before, but they were only rebuilding their homes, ignoring God’s house. Haggai made them think: they sowed and they did not reap, they worked and they did not gain wealth.
The money disappeared from their hands because they had confused the order of their priorities. God and His house should have been the first. They felt inspired by his words, so they began to reverence God, and within a few months they rebuilt the temple. According to the Bible, the fear of God is seen in bringing offerings, obeying, praising, repenting, and changing our priorities. What changes would be seen in your life if the fear of God were your priority? Because instead of establishing a biblical order of priorities in our lives, we try to please everyone: our children, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, work, vacations, friends, school, family, church. We put to one side what is truly important in order to attend to what seems urgent or immediate. To evaluate your order of priorities, think about how you spend your resources. Where do your time, money, energy, and talents go? If God is not in first place in your life, make the necessary adjustments.** If you don’t do this, the enemy will take first place for himself: “When [a man’s] selfish interest is made first and the salvation of souls comes secondary, if at all, that man is working on Satan’s side.”—This Day With God, p. 171, June 11.
The Israelites put God in first place, and He said, “I am with you, say the Lord” (Haggai 1:13). Whoever puts God first will never be the last. “Not one soul has a moment to lose. . .The concerns of eternity are of sufficient importance to take precedence over every other enterprise.” -In Heavenly places, p. 48, February 11.
*The student Bible, notes by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford, New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1986), p. 834.
**Life Application Study Bible, New Living Translation, 2nd Edition (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2004), p. 1097.
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Taken from: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2023
“DAUGHTER OF MINE” Do Not Be Afraid
From: Arsenia Fernandez-Uckele
Collaborators: Angelica Cuate & Esteban Cortes