Check Your Pockets
Haggai 1:5-9 (NIV)
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but 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.” This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “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 your own house.
Haggai 1:5-9 (NIV)Lack in our lives often traces back to not being locked in with God, and being locked in shows up at His house. Being locked in with God is the blessing itself, not the means to some other blessing.
- The Leak Haggai 1:5-6
God tells His people to give careful thought to their ways because everything they gain keeps slipping away. They plant much and harvest little, and they earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. The leak is a sign of distance from God before it is a budgeting problem.
- The Lumber Haggai 1:7-8
God's remedy is specific: go up into the mountains, bring down timber, and build My house. Locking in with God shows up in what we do about His house, not only in what we feel about Him. He wants to take pleasure in it and be honored.
- The Ledger Haggai 1:9
God explains the account plainly: you expected much, but it turned out to be little, because My house remains a ruin while each of you is busy with your own. When the people obeyed, God's first entry in the ledger was not a payment but a promise: "I am with you" (Haggai 1:13). At the cross the debt we could never pay was canceled, and His presence is the blessing.
“Lack comes from not being locked in with God.”
“Locking in with God shows up at His house.”
“Being locked in with God is the blessing, not the means to it.”
“"I am with you" is God's first entry in the ledger.”
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