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Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?

How quickly we are caught up in our own little lives, our own personal problems, that somehow loom so much bigger in our eyes than the Kingdom of God. How enthusiastically we strive after our own desires and dreams, while the Father's heart breaks for the lost and hungry lambs we have stopped searching for. How contentedly we gorge our bodies with food and drink, as His Body wastes away, weary muscles wilting from the brittle bones. How easily we question God when things don't go our way, how suddenly we are reminded of Him, just long enough to shift the blame.

Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have 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.  

For six months after graduating college, I lived in complete misery. The degree I had spent four years pursuing seemed suddenly useless to me. Nothing I did eased my unhappiness. Filling out job applications came to nothing. Writing did little to soothe me. I couldn't find a way to escape the town I hated. I beat my head repeatedly against unyielding brick, begging God to give me a reason why.

You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his 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 of the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.

Four years ago, God told me to pray for rain. Revival for His Church, a restoration of the Holy Spirit that we so desperately need. But I became caught up in myself, swept away in my own selfish troubles. I stopped seeking after His Kingdom. I paid little attention to His people, unless they directly impacted me. I forgot about the bigger picture. I forsook His House to build my own. And I wasted away in the drought.

But in December of 2012, God spoke to me, just as He did to His people through the prophet Haggai. He told me that I had been selfish. That He had a calling and a purpose for me among His people. It was time to stop wallowing in self-pity and start building His Temple (Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple? 1 Cor. 3:16).

On that night, I obeyed the voice of the LORD, and He reminded me, I am with you. He stirred up the spirit, that I would be strong enough to accomplish the task He had called me to. He surrounded me with others whose hearts are bent on building His House. And I have never felt such joy.

Be strong, all you people of the land, and work. For I am with you. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear. In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house. And in this place I will grant peace.

*Italics from Haggai 1:3-6, 9-14, 2:4-7, 9