Do You Want Fulfillment?

photo by J. P. Robertson- jprobertson.com.au

Do You Want Fulfillment?

Haggai is one of those books that you don’t really hear too much about.  I think the first time I ever opened up to the book of Haggai was about a month or so ago and it was in a Bible study where my leader said the same thing about it, no one really ever talks about it.  But, today was the perfect day to read it.  It’s two chapters and basically all of those two chapters is the Lord is speaking to the Prophet Haggai, telling him what to say to the Jews.  First of all, the title of the first chapter explains it all: “A Call to Build the House of the Lord.”  He says in verse 5 and 6, “Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.  You have planted much, but have 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.”  I’m just dumfounded by this.  The first sentence immediately made me think.  Do I give careful thought to my ways?  In the beginning of the first chapter it gives us an overview of what is happening at this time.  After the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, they were to go and finish building the House of the Lord.  But they got caught up in worldly affairs and neglected the building of God’s House.  They thought that they would be saving time and money by not building the temple yet, but God brought a poverty upon them in such a way that they were not “filled”.

Now, they didn’t say that they weren’t going to build the temple but, “not right now” (I’m paraphrasing of course).  It’s the same way with us!  Man does not say that they won’t repent and restructure their lives, and follow God, but “not right now”.  I’ll tell you this: I went through a period in my life where I did not want to listen to anything that God was telling me.  I shut Him out completely.  I did my own thing and lived life on my own.   I did what I wanted, used my money how I wanted and said, “I’ll deal with that whole God thing later.”  I worked so hard at shutting Him out that when it came down to measuring up everything I had achieved on my own, there was nothing.  I was empty and alone and had nothing left to offer but my broken heart and body.  I had eaten, “but never had enough”.  But God is sooooo good and faithful that He brings us back to where we should have been to begin with, “building His temple.” 

I don’t know where you’re at right now, but I do know that God is calling us to come and work for Him.  It’s about time we lay down our heavy load and come to Him!  His load is easy and burden is light.  Trust me, I know.  I gave it up to Him and now I’m building His house!  The reward for building His House is much, much more rewarding then we could ever imagine. 

The second chapter of Haggai is phenomenal!  Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better you read, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory?  How does it look to you now?  Does it not seem to you like nothing?” (Haggai 2:3) Take a look at your old house, and be proud of what you have been made into.  This was something that I really felt the Lord pressing on my heart.  Many times, I beat myself up about my past and the things I did in my dark times, but the Lord says to remember that old self and what it has been made into.  Remember what He changed us from!  Don’t dwell on the past and all of its heartaches, but rather analyze what we once were (a broken, empty house) and what we are now (the Temple of the Lord Almighty!)  We were running rampant and doing what we wanted, which gave us no fulfillment.  Now, we are a new CREATION and we belong to God!  He has made us into something of greater worth!  Do you get that?  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (1 Corinthians 5:17). 

Once we start working for God and in His house, how could we ever go back to our old, broken house?  There is nothing for us there.  We know there is nothing to gain from this world but the glory of the Lord will reign forever.  I’ll leave you with this: “‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty.  ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” ( Haggai 2:9) 

Gloomy Monday?

 

It's Just One of Those Days

Isaiah 43:11-12

I alone am the Lord;
only I can rescue you.
¹² I promised to save you,
and I kept my promise.
You are my witnesses
that no other god did this.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

 

I picked up this verse off of Bible Gateway as the verse of the day today.  It’s like God was speaking directly to me and giving me the refreshment I needed for my soul.  Do you ever wake up in the morning with a sense of unworthiness hanging over you?  Or maybe there are just some days you feel like your dragging your feet in the mud and life just seems to have this tight grip around you, choking you, giving you, “I don’t want to be here” moments throughout your day?  That’s exactly how my days have been going lately.  I have allowed the never-ending thoughts of my worldly day surround my entire being.  Thoughts like: “I’ll never get moved up here.  Do I even want to try harder at work?”  “Today is going to be a long day.”  “Ugh, it’s Monday.  I hate Mondays.”  “I already have people giving me a hard time and it’s only Monday.”  “Why do I even bother, no one even cares anyways.”

Yes, pretty much every single one of those thoughts has gone through my head already this Monday morning.  It’s kind of depressing, I know.  But if I don’t start my day with a promise of God, it goes on like this the rest of the day.  I’m so glad that the Lord sent me this little reminder today.  He says, “I alone am the LORD, only I can rescue you.” WHEW!  God is the only thing that will save me.  Not my job.  Not my parents (although, I do run to them a lot to save me from my insanity).  My friends won’t save me.  My money won’t save me.  Buying more stuff won’t save me.  Finding true love won’t save me.  NOTHING can save me but my Lord.  Isn’t that refreshing?  We don’t have to rely on things that will fail us, because God is there to ALWAYS pick us back up!  That is so much encouragement for my soul. 

Promises, to me, have always been kind of cliché, when they are made by another human being.  But when I saw that God has kept His promise with me from the very beginning of my life, it changed my whole perspective on the word “promise”.  Promise means a “declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that guarantees that a particular thing will happen”.  I’ve made plenty of promises that I didn’t keep.  “I promise, when we get home, we’ll play with your dollies.”  “I promise that I’ll never do that again, God, if you get me out of this one thing.”   But a promise coming from God is different.  You see, we promise things but we don’t know what is going to happen in the future.  Like when I promise Lydia that I will play dollies with her when we get home, I don’t know if we’ll actually make it home.  Or when I promise to God that I’m never going to do something again, I don’t know what the future holds, plus I’m human and I do stupid things.  BUT, God knows the future.  He knows when He promises us abundant life in Him that we will either accept Him or reject Him, but that doesn’t change His promise.  That makes His promise more meaningful then a human-being’s promise!  God is all knowing.  That means He knows EVERYTHING, people (if you didn’t catch that).  I think that sometimes we devalue Him, and start thinking that he is another human being that will let us down.  BUT HE WILL NEVER LET US DOWN!  He promises to give us rest when we are weary, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  He promises to lift us up when we are having a hard time, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).  He promises to protect us from the evil one, “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3).  He promises to hear us in every need we have, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).  God loves you and His promises have stayed the same and will always be the same.  Now, I don’t know about you, but that is something I needed to be reassured of on this gloomy, cold, Monday morning.

 

Have a blessed day in Him!

What does it mean to Be Still?

"Be Still..."

What does it mean to be still?  Does it mean no movement or calmness?  We have heard the Bible verses before, probably a hundred times but do we really know what it means to “rest”.  Yeah, sure we could take the humanistic version of the word “rest” and try to match it up with the verses where God says to “rest in Him”, but does it make sense?   The definition of rest is to “cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength” (dictionary.com).  Does that make sense?  “Cease work or movement and know that I am God”, not really.  Because if we know the character of God we know that He wants us to work and continue moving.  But what this scripture is saying is, if we are tired have our minds “cease work or movement”.  How does one do that, you ask?  Well, that can be a very difficult thing to do because there are so many things going on in our daily lives that to really “rest” one’s mind would require time and quite a bit of peace.  Because let’s be honest, who really has “time” anymore?  I mean, we’ve got bills to pay, people to please, lives to live.  Who really has the time to “rest” in Him?  And maybe we have some time, but can we really “rest” or “be still” in our minds and really “know” that He is God?  We struggle daily with things of this world.  What do we allow into our minds that really don’t need to be there in the first place?  99% of the things we worry about are of this world, possibly 100%.   We know that God says He take care of us… “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they” (Matthew 6:26).  We know that everything happens for a reason, and the things we achieve on earth don’t matter… “What do we gain by all of our hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. ¹¹ God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. ¹² I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, ¹³ because God’s gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do. ¹⁴ Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship him” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 CEV).  We know that God is good and that He works everything out… “We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him.^[a] They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose,” (Romans 8:28 CEV). 

We know these things, and yet, we still can’t find time to “be still”, or be tranquil, or peaceful, or calm.  We worry about the things of this world.  Why do we do that?  God tells us to know that He is God.  God is the Creator of the entire Universe.  He is merciful.  He loved us from the beginning of time.  He never gives up on us.  He restores our souls.  He leads us in the path of righteousness (Psalm 23:3).  He wants our heart and full attention on Him.  Not on the things of this world, because, He knows that the things of this world will always disappoint.  The things of this world will never fully satisfy.  The things of this world will never give us peace.  We have to find “rest” in Him and breathe in His promises to us.  Let Him lead our hearts to what He desires for us.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  Today, I want to challenge you to “be still and know that He is God” (Psalm 46:10).  Whether it’s taking 5 minutes to really pray to Him about His will for us or to sit and listen to what He has to say to you through His word.  I feel as though the Lord wants to speak to us in a new and restoring way. 

Heavenly Father,

We know that You desire for us to be intimate with You and You alone.  Father, we ask that You would help us to see You today Lord and know who You really are.  We need to be close to You and to feel You soak in to our lives.  Thank You Jesus, for giving us Your Holy Spirit and allowing us to see this world for what it truly is.  Lord, we lift up to You our lives and pray that we can focus on You. 

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

The Desires of Your Heart??

The Desires of Your Heart???

Psalm 37: 1-9

Don’t be annoyed by anyone who does wrong and don’t envy them.  

[envy means- a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck.]
² They will soon disappear like grass without rain.

³ Trust the Lord and live right!  The land will be yours, and you will be safe.
⁴ Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire.

⁵ Let the Lord lead you and trust him to help.
⁶ Then it will be as clear as the noonday sun that you were right.

⁷ Be patient and trust the Lord. Don’t let it bother you when all goes well for those who do sinful things.
⁸ Don’t be angry or furious.  Anger can lead to sin.
⁹ All sinners will disappear, but if you trust the Lord, the land will be yours.

Ok, did anyone besides me just have a “dang-it, I envy people all of the time” moment!  Especially those people who “look” like they have it all together (side note: NO ONE HAS IT ALL TOGETHER).  I’ll be the first to admit that I envy women that are beautiful, or women who have a nice family, or women who have a great job and making good money.  But the Bible says DON’T DO IT!  Don’t envy those people!  We should especially not envy people who are going against God in their everyday life.  This does include but is not limited to: sex outside of marriage…example: chick flicks which include sex outside of marriage is a popular, yet destructive way to engage in covetous actions.  Women, when we see a happy couple on the TV livin’ it up and sleeping together, not married, we begin to desire that kind of relationship in our own life.  Think about it… when have you ever not envied Hilary Swank in P.S. I Love You, or Kate Winslet in the Titanic?  Every time we watch it, right?  And maybe you don’t watch those kind of movies, but haven’t you ever just thought, “if I had a car like that” or “if I had money” blah blah blah.  It’s all envy, people!  And God says do not be envious of people who “do sinful things”.  Every time I am on the right track with the Lord, it always seems like the devil has it out to get me to doubt God and go back to my “old ways”.  Does it seem like that for you?  Maybe right after you leave church you see someone driving a really nice car and you can’t help but think, “man, I really wish I could have one of those cars, then I would be happy.”  Well, you know that’s not true.  You wouldn’t be happy if you got one of those cars.  You would only turn and look at the next thing and desire for it.  Or maybe you see an old friend and they don’t seem to be struggling with doing things the way the world is.  I mean, they never had a problem with doing those things in the first place, so why would they?  We struggle with envy because we are humans. 

I just love when this verse says “Trust the Lord and live right!  The land will be yours,
and you will be safe.   Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire” (verse 3-4).  I’m pretty sure we all think that we know what is best for ourselves.  But do we really?  I came to this realization when I moved back home, that maybe my mom really did have my best interest in mind when she told me to do certain things.  Here I was, back at my parents’ house with a clearer mind.  A clearer mind, that, when my mom tells me that doing these things will keep me safe I actually believe her instead of rebuking her for “trying to tell me what to do”.  It’s the same with God.  He wants to keep us safe, and He wants to give us our hearts desire, but can He do that when we are living in sin?  Just like, can a parent give a child a present when they don’t obey?  Any parent will tell you, that is a mistake waiting to bite you in the butt.

 

On an ending note, I'm so thankful for ya'll that read my blog.  It means so much to me to know that God is using little ole' me for something bigger then I could have ever imagined.  And I just write what He tells me to.  I mentioned a while back that every time I type one of these things, I say a little prayer that God will speak to His children exactly what He wants them to hear.  So, everything said comes straight from the Father.

Praying for each and every one of ya'll. Lots of Love.