Today was a peaceful Lord's Day for me, with plenty of thoughts to chew on. I visited a church in the east today and gleaned much from the sermon. It was nice to sit alone in some corner where no one knew me, and nicer still to not be rushing for some committee meeting or music practice. The sermon was on Haggai. I like how the speaker gave pretty much a full commentary on the background of the text and whatever else was relevant for a clear understanding of the sermon. For once, if didn't seem that the chief concern was time constraint.
Consider your ways...
- You have planted much, but have harvested little.
- You eat, but never have enough.
- You drink, but never have your fill.
- You put on clothes, but are not warm.
- You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.
What the speaker said would probably ring a bell in many of our hearts. I think we would, at some point of time, have told ourselves..."Now I'm having exams so I need the time to study, I'll come back to church when exams are over and I'm freer. Then I can devote more time to God." or "I'm really broke right now after paying for ***, I'll stave off offering/tithing for a bit till my debts are paid and am richer" or "I'm still in the critical stages of building my career, I'll serve in church when things at work are more stable and I'm more established in my job." ...And yet the thing is we often find that this time or money that we promised to give God in the future never quite comes because what we are aiming for either never comes or what we possess is never quite enough. Hence, "drinking, but always thirsty", "eating but never having enough", "putting on clothes but not warm"...etc. Isn't it sad to be living a life that's always wanting and never able to enjoy satisfaction?
It was, in a sense, a paradigm shift for me, to consider that God, in asking His people to build His temple, was in fact helping them to establish His presence among them so that their priority system would change. The reason why they were never felt satisfied with whatever they strove to do, was because they were looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. As long as we look for satisfaction in the things of the world, we will never be satisfied. We're continually thirsty because we're drinking from the wrong source.
This speaks strongly to me not just because of certain issues I face, but also because I look at many people around me (particularly non-believers) and I realise that there are so many unhappy people out there. And I don't mean 'unhappy' as a sort of emotion you get from one-off incidents which happen to people. It's this general 'aura' (for lack of a better word)...a kind of deep, hollow, emptiness which they try to fill with all sorts of things, but can never quite fill the gap adequately. And that's cos they're running around like headless chickens trying to taste water from all the sources they can find, thinking each time that perhaps this may be the answer to their search. Drinking from the wrong source. Even believers are susceptible. Why? Because sometimes unknowingly, we succumb to the values of the world, and we establish a system of priority which says...
"When I have enough, I'll give my attention to God."Question is...when will we ever have enough?
As always, God's promise is wonderful. This is what He says,
"If you honour Me first, I'll make sure you are satisfied."When we honour God, our values and priorities change. Indeed it is difficult to be in this world but not of this world. But I'm glad for brothers and sisters-in-Christ, for timely words spoken and for God's promises which never fail. Not even with the test of time.
Are you drinking from the right source?
