Priorities

I am reading in Ezra right now. Haggai was a contemporary of Exra, so there is cross-referencing between the two books. Because of this, I ended up reading Haggai 1 as well. As I read through this chapter, my first thought was, "This is us! This is American Christianity today!" Americans as a whole have a great "me first" mentality, and we as Christians have followed suit. We want to make sure we have our houses in order, have our vehicles, have all of our needs met, and then we give whatever time, energy, and resources are leftover to building the house of God. I'm not talking about our church buildings - I'm talking about the body of Christ around the globe. Now, I don't believe that God wants us to do without our needs. In fact, I'm sure of it! But, I seem to recall a few verses that might deal with this exact issue... But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt 6:33 (NASB)

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4 (NASB) God didn't tell the people that they had to lack necessities for His sake. He just told them to put His kingdom first and let Him take care of them! He tells me the same thing. I have a strong passion to see His kingdom forwarded, but I have long and frequently hidden behind the needs of my household. I know that if I put His kingdom first, it could be that nothing changes in the actual daily details of our lives - then again, everything could change! But, what definitely must change is my focus. I am challenged to be concerned first with forwarding His kingdom and building the body of Christ. If I do that, He will ensure that the door is opened not just for my family's needs to be met, but for me to have the interaction with my family that is needed for us to follow and serve Him together.