Haggai chapter 1

This is all about getting our priorities right in life, about putting God first, not last. Putting God first no matter what is happening around us, whether it is struggling to pay the bills, dealing with ill health, problems at work, at home, with school/college, trying to earn enough to put food on the table, wondering what to cook for tea, just being overwhelmed with life in general. Whatever we are going through, we need to put God first, then everything else will flow from that.
It is easy to concentrate on the things that are going on around us, after all, they are right in front of us, we have to face them all the time. Here, the Israelites had returned to Israel, they had started to rebuild the temple but then been sidetracked with planting crops, building their own homes, looking after their families. All perfectly good and worthwhile things, but doing these meant that they took their eyes off God, they put other things first in their lives and put God second or third, or fourth……

We all start off with good intentions, about reading our bibles, praying, going to church more regularly, having a deeper, closer relationship with God, and then real life crops up, just like it did for the Israelites. There is work to be done, bills to pay, homework/course work to do, the children to sort out, places to go, meetings to attend, a "to do" list as long as your arm, and somehow, that quiet time we had pencilled in gets shorter and shorter, and God gets pushed to the sidelines as we try to deal with all that life throws at us.

But God is with us no matter what is going on in our lives. He knows how busy, or not, we are. He knows how easily our good intentions fall away to nothing when faced with the reality of trying to juggle all those balls in the air and you know what He tells us? He says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30.

Like the Israelites, we try to do everything ourselves, when all we have to do is turn everything over to God, let Him have the control over our lives, the timing, the organisation, and everything else will flow from there. We need to put God back in our lives, put Him first on our "to do" list, seek Him first thing in the morning, during the day and last thing at night, and not put Him in a box, only to be opened in case of emergency.