When we forget...

God works for his people.  But do we work for God?  Sure, we try our best sometimes, but perhaps we forget God much of the time.  We put him on a shelf, so to speak, only to take Him out when we find it convenient.  Do you ever catch yourself saying "I don't have time for God right now"?  "Maybe when things slow down."  "Maybe when I retire, then I'll devote time to Him."  

God is always diligent, yet we are not.  This human flaw is no more evident than in the book of Haggai.  Haggai, a prophet, is in Jerusalem with the Israelites who have returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.  After a 70 year deportation to Babylon, the Jewish people are miraculously allowed to return to Jerusalem via the pagan king Cyrus' decree (Ezra 1:1-4).

Only a small percentage of the Jews living in Babylon return.  These are the most strident Jews, the ones who are able to give up their life in Babylon (the only life they ever knew) and instead live in a desolate place with no walls.  But once in Jerusalem, a strange thing happens.  Haggai is given a word from God:

"This is what the Lord Almighty says:  These people say 'The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house.'" (Haggai 1:2)

Did you hear that? God has miraculously brought them to Jerusalem and the finest followers of God have come to build the temple, yet...the people, not God, have decided it isn't time to build.  Furthermore God asks:

"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while this house remains a ruin?" (Haggai 1:3-4)

What have the Israelites done?  They forgot the very purpose God freed them and the reason they were there – to rebuild the temple! Instead, they secured their own lives, went about living, deciding when it was the proper time to tend to the sacked temple.  By the way, they do this for 15 years before God calls them out.

In our own lives, we are often guilty of this same thing.  We take God out of the picture until He is necessary.  We call the shots. We make the timelines.  We get our relationship with God backwards.  It is important to remember that God is the centerpiece of our life and we are to connect (pray), listen and obey.  When we get it backwards, a problem occurs, and it is the same problem the Israelites experienced 1500 years ago:

“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

Because they forgot the mission, God withheld the blessing. If you are experiencing diminished returns in your life, the first thing to do is to pray.  Get reconnected.  Remember the mission.  God wants you to connect so He can grow you, keep you on task, so your life will be abundant in Him.