Rebuilding the temple of the Holy Spirit (You!)
I don’t know who is going to read this. But I felt compelled to share this with my youth, my brothers and sisters. I read the book of Prophet Haggai this morning (only two chapters). It spoke to me. I felt it was our challenge for today. The people who returned from exile to ruined Jerusalem were not finding fruitfulness, productivity or joy or happiness. Haggai says that they haven’t put God first and have been busy settling themselves down. The Temple of Jerusalem, a once glorious structure built by Solomon, continues to remain in ruins. And no one cared about it. Read it, please. It’s for us.
Through Haggai God says God needs to be the priority. That prioritisation in life leads to order, meaning and purposefulness in every other sphere in life. Sounds illogical? Probably. Your priorities make your life and determines its direction. If you don’t prioritise, someone else will place there priorities on you and drive you their way. God’s priorities are vital for a meaningful life.
But the Temple lies in ruins. The pandemic has ravaged through our lives. We are woking extra time to turn our fortunes around. And we are exhausted. We seem to be languishing in ruins.
We need to return to church, friends. We need to start prioritizing our Sundays and our worship lives. The truth is, without it, our life generally lacks directions. When was the last time we regularly prayed with children, elderly and fellow youth in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day? Just like the Jerusalem temple, is the temple of the Holy Spirit — our body, our lives — in ruins? Are we willing to see the truth?
We need to return to church, and its missions and its purpose. Every week. We are going out, going to office, going on trips, but not to church. Our elderly have returned. But the ones with energy and enthusiasm take the day off, with millions of valid excuses. Yet the Lord reminds us through Haggai of the need to set our life in order beginning with the most important day of the week.
This is what he spoke through Malachi :
Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LordAlmighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse — your whole nation — because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LordAlmighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LordAlmighty. 12“Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 3:7–12)
We are a community called to bless the people of this world, as the Lord promised Abraham (Genesis 3:1–3). We are called to be the salt and light of this world, a city on the hill, a lamp on a lamp stand. But all of that is not possible unless we return to the presence of God and worship together as a community. We need to overcome our lethargy and take this relationship seriously and show up. We have time for everything else but the temple remains in ruins. When you return, you will experience a revival, slowly but steadily, because when you return, he returns to you, as he spoke to Malachi.
Beginning this Sunday, and the days that follow, may a new chapter begin with God as priority. Return to Church and its ministries, because there is quite a bit he is graciously waiting to accomplish through you. This the window you have been waiting for. Now is the time.
When you do so , you will see order returning to your chaos. The Lord speaking to you despite the long and tiring work days. You will begin to hear his still, small voice. And then you will know that it was the Lord’s doing. Don’t say I did not remind you!
Mathews George
