Im sorry. Its easy to say. But how honest are you when you say it? We teach our children that “im sorry” means, I was wrong and it wont happen again. It can also mean you hate what someone is going through. “Im sorry, I hope you feel better”...Im sorry...so easy...runs off the tongue. How often do we tell God we are sorry? Im sorry I sinned, Im sorry I hurt you, Im sorry I forgot you today...Im sorry. In Haggai we read, “Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.You have planted much, but 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.” These folks were surviving but not thriving. They had busied themselves in their life and set God side. “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares theLord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 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.” He wanted to wake them up...remind them who their God is. They heard the message, they indeed woke up . God stired their hearts and they obeyed...Listen to what he said, ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares theLord. ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
“From this day on I will bless you”
Read that last part again....how amazing...God didnt wait for the temple to be complete to bless them. As soon as their hearts and hands were back in line with Gods..he blessed them. God never walks away from us. He stands and waits for us to run back to his arms. He gently guides us, reminds us, sends messagers and allows difficult times to awaken us. And HE never leaves us. Let our words and our actions become one...let us remember our first love....