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Join us as we explore God's ancient wisdom and apply it to our modern lives. His word is as current and relevant today as it was when he inspired its authors more than two and a half millennia ago. The websites where you can reach us are alittlewalkwithgod.com, richardagee.com, or saf.church.

I hope you will join us every week and be sure to let us know how you enjoy the podcast and let others know about it, too. Thanks for listening.

Jan 29, 2018

A daily devotional walking through God's word together using The Bible Reading Plan at http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.html. Our website http://alittlewalkwithgod.com.

Bible Reading Plan - www.Bible-Reading.com; The Story, Chapter 19; You Version Bible app Engaging God's Story Reading Plan Days 127 through 133

Since I was a kid I enjoyed art. Off and on, I have tried my hand at various forms of drawing, painting with oils, acrylics, and watercolors. I have a closet full of paper, canvases, brushes, a pretty nice easel, and all the equipment necessary to create masterpieces. Only I’ve never created a masterpiece.

I have several canvases with backgrounds partially finished and some of the subject sketched in, but I’ll have to admit that it has been at least five or six years since I’ve picked up a paint brush. I’m not even sure I know what I was thinking about painting when I first started those projects several years ago. They just sit in the back of the closet gathering dust and waiting for me to pick up the urge to start up my hobby again.

I’ve also purchased just about every cardio piece of equipment that has come out. Stair stepper. Treadmill. Stationary bicycle. Elliptical. I had every intention of starting and keeping up good exercise regimens to stay fit. What I can tell you is that the best coat rack is the stair stepper.

I also have a lot of tools, many of which I really couldn’t put my hands on if you gave me an hour to find them. They are scattered all over the house and garage. I have every intention of organizing them someday because I purchased them to make and fix things. But alas, they have gone the way of many of my hobbies. They were set aside and forgotten.

Unfinished projects. That’s what the prophet Haggai admonished the Israelites for when he wrote to them 2500 years ago. Cyrus let the Israelites go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Isaiah had told them it would happen and even named Cyrus as the benevolent king that would let them do it.

50,000 Israelites set out to do exactly that. They journed over 500 miles to rebuild their temple and reestablish their worship in the house God designed for himself so many centuries earlier. But now sixteen years later, their project stopped. Maybe they got busy on their own houses. Maybe they got busy with their businesses. Maybe they got the sixteen year flu. Whatever the reason, they forgot their mission and quit their work on the temple. Haggai comes on the scene and tells them about their negligence.

The people who returned with Ezra worked well for a few months on the temple but then quit. The temple was still in shambles. The city walls were still down. Those who saw the city looked and wondered why the people didn’t care about their God because they spent their time on their own comforts instead of on worshiping Him. It tells what is important to them. And it wasn’t God.

The same questions can be asked of us. You can look in my closet and know that painting is not really important to me or I would have finished those paintings that are gathering dust. You can look at my tool room and know that making and fixing things really isn’t important to me or my tools would be well organized and well kept. Unfortunately, you can tell exercise isn’t really important to me by putting me on a scale.

But I don’t want the same to be said of me about God. So as we’re about to end this first month of the new year, how do we make sure we keep God first in our lives? What can we do to change our attitude and avoid making God just another project that gets put in the back of the closet this year?

First, we need to remember that God is not a project. God is everything. He is the Creator of all things. He gives us breath and sustenance. He is the one that makes life possible. He gives us the beauty around us and the eyes to see that beauty. God is. And He must be first in our life. He is not a project.

Second, God is not something to be scheduled into our calendar. I think that’s the problem many of us have. We decide we will schedule time for God and try to work Him into our busy schedule. But it can’t work that way. You see that doesn’t let God be the priority in your life. Instead, schedule your busy schedule around God. Make Him the priority in your life. Work your schedule around Him, not the other way around. If He is on your calendar, make other things secondary and push them around, not God. Rearrange their times and dates, not God’s. Let Him be the priority on your calendar.

Third, Remember what Jesus told us, “Seek first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things, will be give you as well.” Look for, seek after, long for, race to His finish line, Only when we keep God as our priority can all the rest of life be put in the proper perspective. But when we do, then life prospers. Maybe not in the way the world thinks about prosperity, with gold and silver and shiny beads, but with an intimate relationship with God.

Remember God wants to restore a face-to-face relationship with each of us. He has used His chosen people, the Israelites to show us how to have that intimate relationship. As we look at their history and study their successes and their mistakes, we can see what we must do individually and collectively to find God’s favor in our lives.

God sent Haggai to the ancient nation of Israel to warn them against forgetting their first priority. If we listen to words God gave Haggai and apply them to ourselves, we can avoid the plight of the Israelites. We can remain true to the One, True and Living God. We can be assured a place in the garden He has prepared for us. A place where He will walk with us in the cool of the day to commune with us forever.

What does you calendar look like? Do you work God around your day or do you work your day around God? There is a huge difference in how you approach your calendar and your life as to how you answer that one question. Mull it over to day. Make sure you answer it the way God wants you to answer it.