Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” Haggai 1:5-6

I read this passage in the book of Haggai recently and was hit by what a timeless word it was. This sense of gathering, stockpiling, consuming but never giving, sharing or providing for anyone but ourselves is a fruitless task. We hear Jesus later on in the Scriptures tell His followers that in order to gain our life we need to lose it.

We need to give away in order to have fullness.

This sounds like such a foreign concept in our culture of more. But even the most opposed to Jesus’ words would have to concede that our current approach isn’t exactly successful. We are seeing increasing gaps between the haves and the have nots, but there isn’t a major difference in terms of their happiness. In fact, whilst the reasons for their lack of happiness will differ we realise that neither are any better off than the other.

We must break the cycle of thinking that having more is better than having less. I don’t want anyone to live in poverty and I am not against someone being rich, but we must examine what our mindsets are in whatever camp we are in. ‘Stuff’ can never bring happiness over the long term. It can give us a buzz, it can make life easier, but it can’t bring fulfilment and purpose.

Only Jesus can provide us with that.

If we can continually learn to put Him first in our lives and continue to renew out lives around His priorities we will find that our lives take on a whole different pattern. It may not mean we have more or less when it comes to our material possessions but our souls will be restored and our lives will be full.