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,