Temple of Ruins.

"You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house..."

-Haggai 1:9

I remember the first time I got a significant raise. I was making ten dollars an hour and my boss decided to start giving me one more dollar on the hour. It wasn't long after that and I got bumped up to twelve dollars an hour and soon after thirteen per hour. To some people that may not seem like much, but to me, that was a pretty big jump from ten to thirteen dollars an hour. But here's the funny part...and most people that have ever worked a job can relate to this - when I was making ten dollars an hour, I kept thinking to myself, "If I could just get one more dollar an hour, I'd be set." Shortly after I got my one dollar an hour raise, I began telling myself that twelve was the magic number and if I could just make twelve dollars an hour, my family would be sailing on calm waters. I'm sure you've figured out where this is going, because most people I know have had this same conversation with themselves at one point in time or another.

We all just want a little more. One more of this or three more of those is all we would need to get by a little more comfortably. It's not being greedy, it's just that we want the best for our families...and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Our problem lies in much the same place as the Israelites when Haggai declared to them what God wanted them to know.

I was looking for ways to provide for my family, I was just looking in the wrong places. I didn't want my wife to have to worry about our financial situation. I wanted to be able to put food on the table and pay our bills without having to roll quarters. But the hard reality of it is this: I wasn't as consumed with providing the spiritual leadership that my family and I needed.

When we hear people talk about looking out for their families, it's always in the physical sense. Our culture has raised us like its little children to look at the man that has a great marriage, good-paying job, and well behaved kids as praiseworthy, but here's the irony: it's possible to have a great marriage, a good job, with nice kids and your entire family's spiritual life be in ruins. I'm definitely not saying that those things mean your spiritual life isn't as it should be, that's not the point...

It's easy to get caught up in wanting the best for our family physically, that we forget God created us as spiritual beings as well. I heard someone say that if you, as a Christian, find yourself going in the same direction as everyone else in any aspect of your life, take time to truly examine your faith. That's a hard pill to swallow, but it's good medicine for everyone.

God is calling us to rebuild the temple in our hearts. To stop worrying ourselves nauseous about bills and jobs and things that will pass away, and start replacing the broken walls and leaky roofs of our hearts.

Stop running to your own house for shelter and assurance and run to God's.