Priorities are important according to God's Word. Sadly, many people today set priorities and goals for themselves and their family, only to procrastinate and forget that they ever set their goals. When we started our podcast, we spent many episodes speaking about the need for Biblical priorities when it comes to our financial and stewardship responsibility.
What we discussed in those episodes was an elongated form of what we teach in Life Institute’s Stewardship Lifestyle Seminar. Today in this episode, we are not going to totally repeat that episode on "Misplaced Priorities", but what we will be doing is taking some of the key reasons why priorities are necessary and practical for our lives.
Read: Haggai 1:1-16
Observations and Truth Principles:
- The truth is, we all mess up sometimes. The key is how we handle it afterward.
- Discover the need for grace and and embrace it.
- Confess your need for Jesus. Repent, turn from your ways, and ask the Lord to help you in this renewed journey of Stewardship.
- Believe that you are forgiven. Do not believe the lies that you will repeat in your heart and mind. When sin is confessed, God chooses to "remember them no more," and so should you and I!
- God wants to bring glory to His name in our lives, especially when we mess up.
- The question is, are we ready, willing, and desiring for God to do His work in us?
- As we see God to do His work in us, our hope increases because we see first hand His work in and through us.
- Remember, for the Believer in Christ, that in Haggai chapter 1, the game-changer is when God speaks through Haggai and tells Israel “I AM WITH YOU”! That was their game-changer and it should be ours also!
Connection Of Principles of Haggai 1 to the Rest of the Bible
- Jonah
- Jonah also had misplaced priorities. Just like Israel, Jonah chose not to do what God was calling him to do. Israel had issues and so did Jonah! An interesting idea to recognize about Jonah's circumstances was that His situation was not judgment from God, but salvation from God! Think about it, if Jonah would have done what the Lord was calling him to do in the first place, and was willing to do it, he would have experienced great joy! The joy that Jonah would have experienced knowing that Ninivah repented and believed in God would have been more amazing than a late Billy Graham rally!
- Job
- It is important to remember that suffering is not always a result of sin. Sometimes our difficulties and our suffering (even financial challenges/suffering) is God’s way of getting our attention. If you are struggling, have you sought the Lord to see if He is trying to get your attention through your struggles? God may just be trying to get your attention so that He can use you in incredible ways!
Connection to Stewardship in the Life of the Believer Today
- Our priorities are revealed in our spending habits. Sadly, many people today, even believers, have their financial priorities, to use a clinical term, “out of whack”, or upside-down!
- Sometimes financial difficulties are God’s way of getting our attention.
- God enables us to do that which He calls us to do.
Stewardship Application
- Is it time to make changes in your stewardship of what God has put into your care?
- If so, make a plan, take action, and remember that God is with you!
- Remember to pray over your stewardship daily!
- Remember to seek someone to come alongside you for help and accountability.
- Remember that you WILL make mistakes, and when that happens, bounce back quickly by realizing what you did and make the needed corrections to move forward.
- Remember that little victories will help you move forward and get you to where you need to be.
Next Steps
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