THE TENTH OF A 12-PART BLOG SERIES ON LESSONS FROM THE MINOR PROPHETS.

Does it feel like the more money you make the less you have? Does it feel like the more sleep you get, the more tired you feel? Does it feel like the more things you accumulate, the less satisfied you are? Do you wonder why all this might be true?

The prophet Haggai spoke about these very circumstances and the reasons for them. Here's what he wrote:
" 'You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes' " (1:6).

The background into which these words were written helps us understand them. Years before, Judah had been conquered, Jerusalem burned, the Temple demolished, and the people carried away to Babylon (606-586 B.C.). After 70 years of captivity, about 50,000 Jews had returned to their own land (536 B.C.) and had begun to rebuild the Temple. But though they had laid the foundation, the work stopped. Nothing further was done for 15 years. The builders had become disenchanted because the temple was not as opulent as Solomen's and they had become discouraged when they did not see immediate results after the years of neglect.

The builders had also become distracted by their comforts. Instead of rebuilding the temple, they became more concerned with building beautiful houses for themselves, perhaps in an attempt to blot out the memory of their exile in a strange land. Whatever the reason, this distraction cost them the fruit of their labors. Haggai went on to write:

"Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Consider your ways!' Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,' says the Lord.
'You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?' says the Lord of hosts. 'Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of your runs to his own house' " (1:7-8).

So what is the application we can make to our own lives? What is God's temple today? What is our part in rebuilding it? And how do we consider our own ways?

We can look further at Haggai's words. "So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel . . . and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God" (1:14).

To "stir up" means "to awaken, excite, incite, raise up, arouse to action." It's the picture of a conductor standing before his orchestra awakening or warming up the musical instruments for playing a common song (Ps 108:2).

God's Temple today is His Church and the collective body of Christ. While the Church may not lie in ruins, we can be doing so much more than we presently are. But the church will never be all it can be or accomplish all it can accomplish until each member does his or her part. And that will never happen until we cease being disenchanted when the job is often not as pretty as we'd like or when the results are not as immediately observable.

And a more effective church will never, ever happen until its members make God's work the most important goal of their lives. We must stop spending our money and efforts on our own comforts and restore, instead, God's work back to it's rightful place. Instead of trying to accumulate more things, what if we try to send out more missionaries, feed more orphans, or support more efforts to spread the gospel? Instead of finding our satisfaction in our comforts, what about finding our satisfaction only when accomplishing God's will?

Haggai wrote of "stirring up the spirit of Zerubbabel." Haggai (and the prophet Zechariah) caused the people to rally and complete the task within five years. Imagine one person doing the sawing, another hammering, while yet another doing the finishing work. The rebuilt temple was finally dedicated in 515 B.C.

Today, I would like to "stir up" all the gifts and passions in you. Identify the strengths and purpose God has planted in you and then turn your efforts toward fulfilling them instead of on the things that will pass away and carry no eternal impact or reward.

We are all part of God's Temple today, His Church, and we are all given different jobs toward building it. "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them" (Rom.12:4-6).

Get busy using your gifts. Do your part in rebuilding God's Temple. Put your affections and your efforts back where they belong.

As you do, God will take care of all the other things.