Haggai 1:6, “You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Haggai was a prophet whose ministry was to the people who had returned from Babylonian captivity. The excitement and religious enthusiasm they had when they were first set free had declined. They abandoned the repair of the temple and were more concerned with building their own homes. They had become more carnally minded. They said, “There is plenty of time to build the sanctuary; we must attend to our needs first.” Haggai watched as they worked endlessly to earn money for themselves and said, “You are putting your money into a bag filled with holes.” In other words, you are working hard but gaining nothing.

That same attitude seems so prevalent in our day. We do for ourselves first and give God whatever may be left over. Apathy, or lukewarmness, is always the enemy of holy things. The Book of Revelation tells us about the church in Ephesus. Many wonderful things were said about that church, but the one negative outweighed all the positives. “They had left their first love.” In other words, they were going through religious motions, but something had caused them to walk away from the relationship they once enjoyed with God. There was a hole in the bag. Jesus told them, “Repent, and do what you were doing in the beginning.”

Haggai called the people to repent, and they did. God help us to never be guilty of simply going through religious motions. May we serve the Lord with the same love we had when we were first saved.