Put God First in Your Life

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote an important devotional today
that I highly recommend to you.  He has given
me permission to copy his e-mails, and I'm sure
he would be happy if you would share this with
people you know as well.

Most of us jump out of bed with a to-do list that's
pretty long.  If we work all day on doing our thing,
when we will do God's thing?  Perhaps those to-do
lists need to be reformed to put God first in our
lives.

Please read on.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL   THURSDAY MARCH 2, 2006
( Haggai 1:3-11 )

Living beneath God's blessings.  As I was reading the
Bible the other night, I was reading the Book of
Haggai and realized that people have never really
changed even after all of these years.  How much the
people of God spoken about in the Book of Haggai were
EXACTLY like the people of God today.  Let me set the
context for you.  The year is 520 BC.  King Darius,
the Medo-Persian king allowed a remnant of the children
of Israel to return to Jerusalem after being held in
captivity for 70 years by the Babylonians so that they
could rebuild the Temple.

However, the people of God were not as interested in
rebuilding the house of God as they were in building
their own houses.  God spoke through His prophet,
Haggai, to let them know that because of their
selfishness, they were missing the blessings of God. 
That is what I want to share with you today.  How
because of our selfishness, we are living beneath
God's blessings.  How we become so focused on OUR
LIFE, on OUR GOALS, on OUR DREAMS, on OUR DESIRES,
we have forsaken the work of God and are missing His
blessings.

There is not one person reading this today that
doesn't want God's blessings in their life.  Even
those who don't believe there is a God, still want
His blessings.  The reality is, GOD WANTS TO BLESS
YOU!  Jesus said, "it is your Father's pleasure to
give you the Kingdom."  But just like there are
natural laws that govern the earth, there are
spiritual laws that govern the Kingdom of God.  Let
me give you the key to God's blessings.  GOD CANNOT
AND WILL NOT BLESS DISOBEDIENCE.

Let me say that one more time.  GOD CANNOT AND WILL
NOT BLESS DISOBEDIENCE. If you want God's blessings,
the first thing that you must do is live in
accordance with His Word.  The Bible tells us that
"to obey is better than sacrifice."  God said, "Oh
that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and
keep all my commands always, so that it might go
well with them and their children forever."  GOD'S
BLESSINGS FLOW FROM OUR OBEDIENCE!!!

So let's go one step further and look at the very
first commandment. "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me."  Most of us feel pretty safe that we
obey this commandment.  After all, we don't worship
the sun, or the clouds, or a chair, or a tree.  We
don't have hundreds of gods that we pray to.  But
I want to tell you today that whenever you put
yourself before God, you have literally taken Him
off HIS throne and put yourself on it!  You have
said, "my will...not thy will be done."

How can we live in blatant disobedience to the very
first commandment and still expect God to bless us? 
He can't, and He won't! That is why the Bible says,
"you expected much, but see, it turned out to be
little."  If we truly want God's blessings, the first
step is to put God back in His rightful place, on
His throne as the Lord of our life and live in
obedience to what He calls us to do each day.

I love you and care about you so much.  Today's
scripture really shows us how empty this life can
be without God's blessings.  It is no wonder why so
many turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, food, money...
anything to escape.  It is frustrating to live
without God's blessings.  I am not talking so much
about the material blessings as I am the SPIRITUAL
BLESSINGS.  Don't you realize that there is no
amount of money to buy true peace, not enough gold
in the world to buy real joy, not enough real
estate on the planet to buy the abundant life that
God has offered us.  What price can you put on hope?
This world is lost, hurting, and without hope because
it is living without God and without His blessings.

I will be praying for you today to accept the same
challenge that the prophet Haggai gave the children
of Israel 2,500 years ago.  Start rebuilding the
house of God in your heart.  Take the focus off of
building YOUR HOUSE, and put it on building GOD'S
HOUSE.  Take the focus off of what YOU want to do,
and put it on what God wants you to do.  God wants
to bless you abundantly so that you eat and are
full, so that you drink and are never thirsty.  God
wants to bless YOU TODAY!  Isn't it time to stop
living beneath His blessings, and start receiving
all of the blessings that HE has for your life?

Thank you for your prayers, for your love and the
sacrifices you make to help me as we bring God's
Truth and the hope and love of Jesus Christ to the
lost and hurting in our world each day.

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

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(C) Copyright 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved


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May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell