Getting Our Attention - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Haggai 1:5-6,

"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.'"

The Israelites were not experiencing God's abundance in their lives. Why? Didn't God love his people? Didn't God want to bless his people?

These questions are often asked today. How many times have I heard, "God loves you and wants to bless you!" If this is so, then it seems like God doesn't love a lot of his people as we look around. Obviously, something doesn't square up here, if we want to be honest about it. Is it God? Doesn't he really love us?

The answers lie in what we fail to understand about God. Yes, God loves his people and he loved this remnant of Israel as well. What we find is that the Lord had taken the goodies away from them to get their attention. Sometimes the Lord has to bring things in our lives to get our attention. The folks had abandoned God's agenda to pursue their own, leaving what God wanted done, undone.

I'm certain there may be many reasons why any one of us may not be experiencing the blessings of the abundance God can provide, including reasons having nothing in their origin to do with us, say, in the example of Job. However, that is not the case with this remnant of Israelites. They had abandoned what the Lord wanted them to do in order to pursue their own self-interests. They left the interests of the Lord behind. Consequently, they experienced the Lord's attention-getting and had to make things right by him.

We may need to do likewise from time to time. Are there things the Lord wants me to do that I have put off? Might it be I am not experiencing the abundant blessings the Lord provides that I might otherwise have because he is getting my attention? Is there something he wants me doing I have left undone?

Something to consider here.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com