1Ki 7:1 But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

Solomon took seven years to build the temple of God (1 Kings 6:38) but thirteen years to build his palace, almost double the time (v.1). Why? There are a few reasons why the time taken to build the temple was shorter: 1. His father, David, had done much preparatory work for it (1 Chronicles 22:2-4). 2. The palace was more extensive and it included several other houses for his wives (v.8). 3. Another reason could be priority.  Perhaps, Solomon gave priority to the work on the temple and put more manpower into it. The question for us is this: Are we spending more time building our own houses and neglecting the house of God? In the days of the prophet Haggai, the Jews who had returned from Babylon to their homeland were too busy building their own houses that they had forgotten why they had returned in the first place. (Haggai 1:1-4). It’s been twenty years since they returned but the house of God was not done. They were enthusiastic when they first arrived in Jerusalem. The enemies caused the work to cease. So they went to build their houses. Then, they forgot about the temple completely. They became so slack that they kept putting off the work. They said: “The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built” (Haggai 1:2). My questions are: When is the good time to build the house of God? Is there a good time? We may not be physically building our houses. But, are we spending too much of our time building our careers, our families, enjoying ourselves, and neglecting the house of God? God gives us 168 hours a week. And, if our time for God is limited to the two hours each Sunday, it is only 1.2% that we are returning to God. Do you see the disparity between what has been given to us and what we are giving back? It is difficult to put a figure how much time, energy and money we should give to God. How can we thank God enough for everything He has done for us? There is no way we can come near to matching what God is giving to us. God is like a super rich and generous friend who is always giving. Have you ever received a very expensive gift from a friend? Say you have a friend who knows you are struggling providing for your family. He gives you a gift of $10,000. There is no way you can repay his kindness. Similarly, there is no way we can repay God’s kindness. But, that does not mean we don’t do anything at all. We must do in whatever ways we can to show our appreciation and love. In Mark 14:3-9, we read of a woman who came to anoint the head of Jesus with a very expensive ointment. People were saying what a waste of the ointment, for the money could be sold for three hundred pence and gave to the poor. Jesus rebuked their hypocrisy. The poor they had with them all this time but they had not done anything to help them. Some would have had more than three hundred pence with them; did they help? Jesus said of the woman: “She hath done what she could.” All that God asks from us is that we do our best; we do what we could! Are we doing our best? Are we doing what we could?