Every person in the human race is born with a condition I call insatiable self: “It’s all about me.”

As we grow in age and stature, we add another sentence: “It’s all about me. It’s never enough.”

Hopefully, the maturation process brings the realization that everything doesn’t revolve around the earth, but the earth orbits the sun.

We need to learn this lesson spiritually as well. How do you answer these questions?

• What do I give first priority to each day?
• What do I give first priority to in my bank accounts? In my thoughts and time?
• How much of my day is self-oriented? How much thought to I give to others?
• Do I deliberately withdraw from the noise of each day, detach from my insatiable self, to commune with God?

How do you and I answer these questions? How does our church? How about our country?

 This is not a new phenomenon. Listen to God’s words:

Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: “Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Look at what’s happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.” You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” Then … the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord.

“I am with you, says the Lord!” So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm [of the people] …

Haggai 1:3–14 (NLT)