My ability to blog every day has been, in the words of Charles Barkley, trrrible. There are a few things I have discovered while meditating over the Psalms these last three weeks:

• It is hard work to seek deeper truths on a daily basis.
• The psalmists don’t cover a lot of material, but the depth is unreal.
• It is so easy to push God to the bottom of your agenda, even why trying to focus on keeping Him at the top.

Thank you, Lord, for showing me my humanity.

You + Me =
Last night at bible study we were discussing the message of Haggai. Something amazing happens in those two short chapters – the people of Israel actually respond to the Lord and repent. Usually it’s a lot of back and forth, and God has to bring on some more punishment, and a few chapters later they get it. And it’s always so brutal. “Why don’t they get it?!? It’s so simple,” I say to myself.

Well, this time – they get it.

Naturally the conversation turned to discover what was different. It seems two fold:

1. The people of Israel recognized that crops, food, drink, clothing and money were not satisfying them.
2. The Lord stirred their hearts.

And that’s the formula: us + God = conviction and repentance. When conviction and repentance don’t happen it’s because our heart isn’t there yet. That can lead us down a dangerous path. We give a little here, give a little there, and soon we’re ensnared in something much bigger than we imagined. In Psalm 55, David is pained by a brother with who he once shared sweet fellowship, and now he is destructive. It seems to be a slippery slope.

So how do we stay there? That seems to be the million dollar question. The illustration that was used last night was comparing our responses to money and to God. No one has to convince us of the perceived “good” that can come of someone giving us $2000. Instantly we know where to spend it and what to spend it on. In fact, the possibilities are almost endless. We are easily convinced of the benefit.

When it comes to the value of following God, it gets tricky. Not only do we have to convince ourselves of the benefits, but the world around us is trying to prove us wrong. The world is trying to convince us that our security is in money, food, and shelter. We say, “Following Christ gives way to joy in suffering,” while the world shouts back, “Where is your God now?” For every perceived benefit, the world has a refuting response.

I think the truths that we have to hold on to are different for every person. We must seek out those truths and set our hearts on them. Through Haggai, the Lord begs us to consider our ways, because those ways are what will lead us to a greater relationship or to a shallow belief.