Don't Try Taking Shortcuts with God

Don’t Try Taking Shortcuts with God

“You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” (Haggai 1:6)

            There is a tendency in our society to try to cut corners and take shortcuts.  Sometimes a shortcut to avoid traffic is a good idea.  But generally speaking, shortcuts have a way of backfiring on us.  This is especially true when we try to cut corners in things regarding our relationship to God.

            In our Haggai text, God is chiding His people because while they were rebuilding their own houses, they were neglecting God’s temple.  The result was that, even though they were planting crops and working hard at their respective occupations, they were not making any profit.  Earlier in the nation’s experience, the people had apparently greedily refused to allow the land to rest for its Sabbath year (see Leviticus 25).  But according to 2 Chronicles 36:21, they had been neglecting those years of rest and had been harvesting all they could.  Thus, when the nation went into the seventy year captivity, God said the Sabbaths would be made up while they were gone.

            I had a pastor friend in another state who frequently visited a man who had been shut in for some time.  During one of these visits, the man asked the pastor why he thought the Lord was leaving him in his condition so long.  The pastor suggested they both pray for an answer and discuss it on the next visit.  Sure enough, when the pastor entered the house on the next visit, the man had an answer.  He related how some time earlier he had been suspected of not dealing honestly with some church funds.  The man because angry and decided to leave the church and prove that he could make money without the church . Now he realized that God was leaving him in his condition until all his money was gone.  Not too long afterward the man died and the pastor had his funeral.  At the service a daughter related to the pastor that all the man’s money was gone and they were about ready to sell the house. 

            That which he thought he could enjoy without God’s people became useless to him except for surviving.  God is an excellent bookkeeper and we need to be very careful about cutting corners with Him.

Rev. Thomas D. Murray was a great mentor to many men in ministry over the years, and was a dear friend of America’s Keswick

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Joshua 22-24; Psalm 81; Proverbs 29

Compass Pointers: May the power of your love, Lord Christ, fiery and sweet as honey, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of our love. Francis of Assisi

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 13:14; Level 2: Proverbs 13:20-25

Anchored to the Rock: There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christians so much as our prayer life. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones