| Good morning everyone, Our theme for this month: “Fully Alive” Our Bible verse for today: “Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be happy. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it.” Haggai 1:5-7 (CSB) Our thought for today: “We must think carefully about our ways” In yesterday’s devotional we considered Moses’ words to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:10-12. In that passage he told them that when they took possession of the Promised Land, they would find themselves blessed in material ways far beyond what they deserved or had any reason to expect. He warned them to not allow their comfort, peace, and security to lull them into complacency and laziness. If they weren’t careful, they could become too comfortable and they could enjoy their lifestyle a little too much. That then would slowly but progressively draw them away from God. They didn’t listen to the warning and they suffered because of it. We also considered how true that is today in our nation, and as a result, many Christians in America are lukewarm in their faith, and many of our churches are weak and dying. It’s our lifestyle that’s doing that to us. We’re enjoying ourselves a little too much. We make excuses for paying less attention to God and for being less active in church. And as we focus more and more on our hobbies and recreation and all the other distractions, and less on God and on church, we discover that we’re less happy not more; less content not more. We’re experiencing the very thing that Haggai described in Haggai 1:5-7 (above). Enough is never enough. No matter how much a person acquires, it they’re not right with God they will still have an unsettled sense of discontentment and unhappiness. No matter how much they have, they know down deep that something vital is still missing. It’s God who is missing. For those Old Testament Jews God was still there, He was still with them. But their relationship with Him was distant and tepid. And it wasn’t God’s fault. He wasn’t the One who moved away from them, they drifted away from Him. As was noted in yesterday’s devotional, this is a trend in American Christianity that is only getting worse. As individuals, as churches, and as a nation we’re moving further and further away from God. And was we do, everything gets worse. Our nation needs to come back to God. But it has to start with us – as individuals and as churches. The church has to come back to God before the nation will. We have to be passionate about our faith and fully committed to the Lord before our nation will be. If we expect the nation to be fully alive in Christ then the church will need to be fully alive in Christ first. It’s time for all of us to carefully consider our ways and to make some adjustments accordingly. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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