Give thought to your ways.
—Haggai 1:5
Returned exiles of Babylonian captivity were driven by the excitement of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. But after laying the foundation, their enthusiasm waned, and construction ceased.
They ignored God’s house for the next sixteen years while building ritzy digs for themselves.
“Is it right for you to be living in fancy houses while the Lord’s house lies in ruins?” asked the prophet Haggai.
He hammered home the backlash of their self-centeredness: “You have planted much, but you harvest little. You eat, but you do not become full. You drink, but you are still thirsty. You put on clothes, but you are not warm enough. You earn money, but then you lose it all as if you had put it into a purse full of holes” (Hg 1:5 NCV).
Nothing you accumulate or achieve will satisfy if you put self before the Savior.
First on your to-do list
should be to put God first.