Quote for the Day

“Give careful thought to your ways.”

Today's Prayer

This week ask God to give you insight as to what He has planned for you. As you pray, also ask that He give you an open spirit to hear what He has to say.

Haggai 1:1-11

Haggai 1:1-11 (NIV)1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of , and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ “3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have 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 the 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 his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

Message

Haggai is a short but powerful book, containing only two chapters totaling 38 verses. The Israelites have been released from captivity in in order to rebuild the temple to its former glory. A small problem is soon determined. The crops that had been planted were not growing and the cattle were not producing milk. Those who had returned had begun to work on their own houses and had left God’s house in ruin. In verse nine we see that God has shown the reason for their current frustration about life after captivity, “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.” Twice God gives the imperative, “Give careful thought to your ways.” God wants us to THINK about our life and what it is focused on, and as we have seen over and over, it needs to have a focus on HIM!As you think about your focus, where is God? God should not only be in focus in our lives, He should be the only focus, and then the rest of life becomes clear.