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 never warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it. Hage. I struggled to separate two pages of the newspaper. I blew on the edges and even wet my thumb, but the little critters held together as though glued. Come on, I said out loud. This is a simple task that even a child can perform. But seconds passed and those pages simply wouldn't yield to my will. Agitated, irritated, and frustrated, I considered canceling my subscription to the paper to avoid such in the future. But not wanting to be a wimp, I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and went at it again. After what seemed like forever, I managed to separate those two pages. And what did I find inside? An article that would change my life? Nope. What I found was a double page ad from a local grocery store and not even the one where I shop. I couldn't believe it. I had worked so hard and so long to open a grocery store ad. Doesn't that describe a lot of people? You know, they work so hard at something they believe is the end all answer to all their hopes and dreams, but it turns out to be nothing more than a thief of time they can never get back. That was God's point in the message of the prophet Haggai. Think about it, God said. You work so hard at something you think is so very important, only to discover that your hard work didn't pay off, leaving you worse off than you were before. And that's what will happen every single time. You let other things take priority over your relationship with me and the things that I say are to be a priority in your life. We waste a lot of time and energy on things that won't last and in the end won't matter. We need to be wiser than that, making sure that our priorities and goals are in line, in tune, and in sync with God's desires for us. If we don't, we won't even be able to keep up, let alone get ahead. The things of God must be at the top of our list, not somewhere down the line.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to [email protected] have a great day, and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.