Who's temple do we build?

"Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes. You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?' declares the Lord of hosts, 'Because of my house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.'"
Haggai 1:5-6,9

I love it when God asks a question. It will forever be rhetorical. "Where are you?", he says to Adam in the garden. Jesus asks John's disciples who are following Him, "What do you seek?" The all-knowing God knows the answers to these questions. Jesus was not opposed to thinkers. In fact, I believe He asks these questions as a means to encourage us to think. What are you doing? What are you really looking for? He knows our hearts far better than we know them ourselves, so he inquires these things of us to send us on a journey.

It seems as though times have not changed since Haggai's time. God has called the people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild His temple. Yet instead each man was concerned with his own house instead of the house of the Lord. I look around me, and we are no better. Leaving college and entering the so-called "real world" has given me the greatest reality check thus far in life. It is simple to sing songs, lead Bible studies, and join ministries to "build the Lord's house". But is my primary purpose, does my life display a life so overwhelmed by Christ that I seek to build His kingdom above my own personal dwelling? Do I hold on to the fleeting pleasures and goods of this world instead of the eternal kingdom promised by the Lord? I certainly am immersed in a culture that is completely concerned with the world. A daily battle I must fight. But I think He provides many of the same signs to us today that He did with the people in Jerusalem. We continue to be disappointed by the world. We eat, and continue to be hungry for something more. We put on clothes, but never are completely content. We fill our pocket books, buy the latest trend, gadget, house or car, and yet it never seems to be enough.

The Lord has a solution. Focus on the eternal kingdom. Don't run to your house, run to His. We look for significance, fulfillment, and worth in all the wrong things. Look in His house. Throughout the rest of Haggai, God continues to encourage His people with simple but profound words..."I am with you. My Spirit is abiding in your midst." Praise be to Him, God with us. A God so loving that He understands the deepest needs of my heart and allows my disappointments and emptiness to press me further and deeper into Him,

Eternity in the heart of man

"He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

A concept that is difficult for me to wrap my head around, eternity set in the heart of man. Yet how could someone not read those words and have them immediately jump off the page? A resounding THANK YOU LORD! It's something I feel on a daily basis. The longings, urgings, desiring. Those moments of desperation when the heart cries "there has to be something more", and He tells you there is. Even the most joyful moments when you feel as though things couldn't be any better, but then something whispers in your heart telling you that they can, and they will. What irony it is to both struggle and rest in this idea.

Yet an even greater struggle is the second part. That we shall "not find out the work which God has done". My father once said to me, "You know, Carly, when I tell people about you, I tell them you are like the stock market. You both don't like uncertainty". Though perhaps this is not the most endearing statement a dad can give his daughter, it is definitely the most honest and correct one. Perhaps we look at God the same way. Sometimes I use my time in the Word as a way to figure out God, and my life. Why else do we claim to have seasons in life where our quiet times seem to be dry? Is it because we seek after God for the answers he provides instead of seeking only after God, seeing Him as THE Answer? Is it that we are looking and hoping for a burning bush or a whale to envelope us, instead of calming ourselves in order to hear His voice in the wind? We buy into the idea that the Maker and Creator of all things must have at least a little more knowledge than the rest of us. But an all-knowing God that sees everything, ordains everything? We just want to know! Patience and trust are the some of the most sought after qualities in character, but certainly the hardest to discipline ourselves in.

Because of all this I have decided to name my "blogging" after this passage. It signifies not only the daily walk we have but the deep purpose we were created for. By dwelling on the truth of eternity, all that it promises and entails, we understand the reason our lives are meant to glorify God. Solomon follows this verse with a call to rejoice. So let's rejoice! We have an omnipotent God whose timing is perfect, who places eternity, Himself, in our hearts. Our longings are come into the light, and we can begin to trust Him with them. There certainly can be no greater gift, no deeper meaning, no purpose more obvious than this. In the Truth, I will rejoice.