Attention Getter
14 Then Haggai responded, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled by their sin. 15 Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. 16 When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. 17 I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.
Haggai 2:14-17 NLT
Stubborn. Many of us are just stubborn. I was talking to a friend last week about budgeting. We've had this discussion many times over the years. I always insist that what he does isn't budgeting. Finally, last month he admitted that he actually hadn't been budgeting. So fast forward to last week and I asked him if I could work with him on his budgeting; and all of a sudden his "budget" was just fine again. Stubborn lol.
Similarly many times we know what God has been telling us to do, agree that it's the right thing to do, and then make up excuses why we can't do them. In Haggai the people knew that they were supposed to be building the Lord's house, but was more focused on building their own houses. As a result, God allowed much of their hard work to be in vain. Why? So that the people will return to Him.