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I was reading the book of Haggai (It’s a short one lol), and I realized that this book, like everything else in the Bible, speaks so much about life today.

In the book, God is using Haggai to relay a message to the people.  He is upset because the people have built great wealth and luxurious houses, but have failed to rebuild His temple.  Because of this He has caused a drought in the land.  Although the people plant much, the yield is small.

The message gets relayed to the people and they get inspired and rebuild the temple.  God then promises that because of their faithfullness, they will be blessed.

I got to thinking about how this applies to us today, because obviously God isn’t talking about building the physical temple to us. 

God prior to Christ, dwelt in the temple.  Now He wants to dwell in us.  But especially here in the western world, we are too busy chasing luxury and our aspirations to build a relationship with God.  Because of this God is withholding all that we could be.  The blessings that He is waiting to poor out on us sit to the side because we aren’t putting Him first and building our "Temple" for Him.  That is our relationship with Him. 

I believe He is telling us that we really need to diligently build the absolute best relationship we could have with Him and He will bless us beyond what we could imagine. 

This is asking a lot of us in the western church I know, but hey, our sin asked a lot of God.  He sent His Son to die for us. 

My challenge to all of us is to take time out for Him above all else.  We should never be able to say, "I don’t have time for prayer, or Bible study, or just meditation."  God HAS to be a priority in our lives.

Make this your prayer and then actually follow it. "Father, I am sorry for putting wordly wealth and possessions ahead of You.  Forgive me Father.  I long to build Your temple and I need Your help.  Break the spell that has been cast over me so that I can focus on time with You!  I love You Lord, Amen."

Have a great day.

Lee