4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” – Haggai 1:4 (NIV)
I remember many, many years ago as a young man that I was going to be a little short in paying a cell phone bill. So, I did the only thing I knew to do – go ask mom if I could borrow some money. As I explained my unfortunate scenario and gave my sales pitch, she listened intently; her face never once giving me an inkling of an expression to let me know if I was going to be successful.
“So, you’re a little short this month,” she said.
“Yep,” was my response with the saddest of eyes I could muster.
“But you had money for cigarettes and spending time with your girlfriend all month,” she said plainly.
Ouch!
Needless to say, the loan never came and I was forced to deal with the consequences of my decisions.
Haggai is delivering God’s message of indictment to a people who have not done what they were supposed to do. They have spent their time and money investing in their own comfort, their own luxury, their own desires. God, who should have been their number one priority, was pushed off and traded in for the luxuries of this world.
God has instructed Haggai to give the people this message because they have sinned. And it’s the love and grace of God that exposes our sin to us. Sin destroys. Sin separates us from God. As the old saying goes, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
We can acknowledge that having our sin exposed is painful, but it’s God’s loving grace to us so that we would repent and walk in His ways. So today, praise God for exposing your sin and ask Him to give you a heart that’s soft enough to respond and courageous enough to repent.