TUESDAY, 12 January, 2021 “Be Encouraged”

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Good Tuesday morning to you my Walking with Jesus friends,

We are in a season of time when many people around the world are watching political events in America closely and trying to discern how things might change in their part of the world and what they should do, how they should live, especially as God honoring men and women, as their societies are changing around them. Is that where you are today my friends?

We are not alone, nor is this the first time our world has faced such challenges, so what can we learn from others who’ve walked similar paths? Join me today please in God’s Word, Haggai chapter two. Yesterday we saw Mr. Haggai bring a message of challenge from God to the Jewish exiles who had returned from their captivity in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple of God. Although they began well, in the face of opposition they became discouraged and stopped their work on the Temple. For nearly 20 years nothing was done on the temple mount! Life went on without much of a role for God in their society! Finally God sent Haggai with a challenging message and the people resumed the work, as we saw yesterday in chapter one. Today let’s step into chapter 2.

There’s about a 30 day gap between the end of chapter 1 and opening of chapter 2. Obviously God was watching the people carefully, and He knew they needed another word from Him, so God sent another message to the people through Haggai. “Speak to the people and ask them ‘ Who of you is left who saw this temple in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it seem to you as nothing? Be strong, all you people’, declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you, declares the Sovereign Almighty God! This is what I covenanted with you when I rescued you out of Egypt. My Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” (Haggai 2:1-5)

You’ll recall the first temple was built under the watchful eye of king Solomon and it was phenomenal in majesty. More than 150,000 workers and yet not a sound of a tool at the temple site according to 1 Kings 6:7! Several chapters detail that amazing construction feat. (2 Chronicles 3&4; 1 Kings 6-8) Many fewer people working on this second temple, and it was smaller in size, and they would not have as much of the nearly boundless resources to make it magnificent, so there was a sense of sadness mixed with their anticipation of once again having a temple in Jerusalem. Aren’t you glad God can see into our hearts, and understands completely our emotions, our thinking, our attitudes . . . and sometimes God reaches to us for a ‘realignment’. God calls us to realign our priorities, our perspective, our emotions, our thinking… with His priorities, His perspective, His emotions and His thoughts.

Has that ever happened to you my friends? The ‘stuff’ of life wears you down to the point you are ‘out of alignment’ and you know it. Your heart is troubled, your attitudes are critical, your mind sees only the negative side of things, and too often our tongues waggle and say things which are not helpful and may even spread disagreement or division and discord among the people. I think that may have been happening here in Jerusalem at the temple mount, so God sent a fresh message of hope. Is a fresh word of hope from God needed where you live today?

Haggai brought this message from God: “Be strong, all you people, and work, for I am with you, declares the LORD! My Spirit remains among you, do not fear!” Regardless of the circumstances, or what others are doing or saying all around you, have you discovered my friends that NO ONE has the power to reach into your soul and trouble your heart and mind unless you allow them! God has given to each of us the power to protect our hearts and our minds! If you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior, the Holy Spirit of God lives within you (John 14:16,17) and God has not given us a spirit of fear but of sonship! “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so you live in fear, rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship, so we cry Abba Father. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if His children then we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.” (Romans 8:14-17)

That is powerful truth isn’t it my friends? It reminds us of our true identity in Christ which should shape how we view ourselves, how we see our world and how we face the challenges of life! Do you see how similar Romans 8 is with God’s promise through Mr. Haggai to the people of God in 520bc? The promise of the Presence of God with us is HUGE in its implications and it should profoundly affect how we live each day in tumultuous times, do you agree? Do you remember Moses said to God “Do not send us from here unless You go with us, for what else will distinguish us from all other peoples on earth?” (Exodus 33:15,16) It’s a fearful thing to walk through life facing the challenges of life WITHOUT God isn’t it?

Do you also remember God’s promise to Joshua as he transitioned into leadership after Moses’ death in Joshua 1:1-9? “Do not be discouraged, do not fear, for I am with you. For the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you…” My friends, do you recognize this as a favorite theme of God when He speaks to His discouraged, frightened people anywhere in the world? Maybe you need to claim it today as God’s promise to you, wherever you live, whatever is going on in your life, or your part of our world!

The people in Haggai’s day were reminded by Gods’ promise that God was with them as He had covenanted with Moses and the people at Mount Sinai. Even though the people had turned away from God repeatedly, and God had disciplined them with captivity, God had not abandoned them. It was important that God reminded them of this truth: that while their choices had brought calamity upon them, He was with them in their calamity. I wonder if that might pertain in some special ways to many places in our world today?

May I offer you a closing suggestion today? Take a piece of paper, maybe a 3×5 card and write the words of God’s promise in your own handwriting, and then carry it in your pocket all day today, maybe all week, looking at it often, and reading it out loud, especially when circumstances around you concern or even frighten you. Make it personal: “Be strong ______________ (put your name right there) declares the LORD, and work. For I am with you…and My Spirit remains among you, so do not fear.”

That powerful truth my friends might make a great difference in how you view what’s going on all around you in our world these days. Confusing, frustrating days. And each time you read it, I’m inviting you to express your thanks to God… that He is always true to His Word! So I’m including a song that I hope will be running through your mind all day today as you celebrate God’s promise to be with us even in difficult times:

Today’s Scripture is Haggai 2.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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