COMPROMISING WHAT IS RIGHT
Haggai 1:5,6 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to 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.”
King Darius of the Med and Persian empire that conquered the Babylonians told the Jews that they could go back to Jerusalem to build another temple for the Lord. While they went back, they were very slow in the building of the temple. When confronted by the Lord they responded by saying that the time had not yet come to build it. They were busy building their houses, planting crops and getting their lives started again. While this was necessary, they hadn’t bothered to even start building the temple. Their actions were showing where their priorities were really at, and they weren’t with the Lord.
There is a saying that if you really want to know what is behind something you just need to follow the money. Detectives do this in crime cases and reporters do it in their reporting. An example of this was just on the TV yesterday. Following the killing of 50 people in Florida President Obama called for the senate and congress to pass legislation to prevent assault weapons to be sold to the public. While he as been saying this for 7 ½ years and there have been many killings using these weapons the congress and senate dug in their heals very quickly even though the guns can not be used for hunting. CNN Broadcasting told of the millions of dollars given the politicians every year to lobby them for favorable legislation. And it is not just the NRA either. There are many, many people and organizations that give to politicians to influence their decisions. So we see leaders putting themselves before the people and even God is nothing new! The thing is that God didn't see it as right then, and he doesn’t see it right now.
When we don’t put God first in our life and that of our family, God will make sure that what we put before him will not bring us satisfaction. If we don’t want to give to the Lord he will frustrate us by putting holes in our pocket. In other words we will have more problems, frustrations and disappointments in our life.
Malachi 3:8 tells us this very thing. Whenever we compromise doing what is right for money we will be sorry, because God will make sure of it. I Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. It even happens in the church. People start thinking that they need to take care of themselves and then they find themselves taking care of themselves and wonder why things are going so bad!
The Jews went back for the purpose of building the temple to glorify the Lord, and they ended up putting themselves first only to find themselves frustrated and lacking in all their efforts.
Malachi 3:8 tells us that if we put the Lord first in our life, and that includes our finances, that he will open the floodgates of heaven with blessings for us. He says we won’t even have enough room for them.
My wife and I have found this true. Right after we became Christians, we decided that we would trust the Lord with every part of our life and that was finances too. We started giving 10 percent of our income to the Lord, and even more as the Lord put it on our hearts to give. Immediately we went from struggling to make our house payments to having extra money for our hearts desires. We have continued to trust the Lord for all our needs, and he has never let us down. Even recently when we retired the Lord blessed us ways we didn’t dream possible. Because I was in the ministry and didn’t have much for an income, we were never able to buy a house. When we did retire there was no way that we could ever pay off the loan on the house we had purchased. We considered it much like rent. We had lived in our house for about four months and Beckie’s mother came to live with us. While we told her that she wouldn’t have any bills staying here, she insisted in paying off the house and help with our other bills for everyday living. We went from things being very tight to an abundant life. The Lord is good. We can never out give the Lord, but we can keep him from blessing us by not putting him first in every part of our life.
How is your life going? Are you putting the Lord first in your life and trusting him to supply all your needs? If not remember the Jews that put themselves before the Lord, and his promises to bless and prosper if we do put him first and trust him. In Malachi 3:10 God even goes so far as to challenge us to test him in this. I am sure God will not have to hang his head in shame for ever letting us down when we stand before him.
Prayer: Lord, please help us not to let money or things lobby us away from trusting you or doing what is right. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
