Tag Archives: Haggai

Step back, pray, and allow the Lord to work

step back

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Step back. Over the last few months it seems life has been going at a frantic pace. I quit exercising and watching my diet. I quit revising one of my college courses I teach. There were other things that I simply either lost interest in or just didn’t have the desire to do. My personal Bible study, although still a part of my life, didn’t yield the fruit it once did. I was going through a real spiritual battle. But instead of taking a step back and seeking the Lord’s will, I decided to handle things on my own.

We pray for guidance…

Like many people, during this ordeal I was praying for the Lord to guide me in the direction I was sure He wanted me to go. It’s easy to think that the direction we are heading in is the direction the Lord wants us to go. We gain confidence as small obstacles are overcome and we continue on our way. We give lip service to the prayers about helping us to understand God’s will. At times, we do not want to see the Lord guiding us in any way other than the way we want to go. But the question remains: do we really want the Lord’s guidance? We often approach the Lord with what we want to do and not asking what He wants us to do.

But we don’t step back…

Often we do ask the Lord for guidance but instead of waiting to see what He does want, we find ourselves continuing on the same path. In Proverbs, we often read In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6), but do we really acknowledge Him? The work, acknowledge, according to the Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary: to recognize the rights, authority, or status of; to disclose knowledge of or agreement with; to express gratitude or obligation for. In other words, it’s not just saying “the Lord is my God” while still holding on to your own plan or idea. It is saying “the Lord is my God and I recognize His authority in my life.”

It’s often difficult to do especially if you’re like me. I don’t like uncertainty and I don’t like waiting. In fact, one of the hardest things for me to do is to take vacations or days off from work. But sometimes that is exactly what the Lord wants us to do. He wants us to take the time to step back and let Him do a work in our lives. Sometimes that work is to set us on another path. Even David experienced this: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings (Psalms 40:2).

We waste our time…

Earlier this week, I found a passage that describes what I feel like I’ve done for the past three years: Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways (Haggai 1:5-7). It is easy to find ourselves in a place where we feel we are not making any traction in our lives. And it is these times where we become the most spiritually vulnerable.

For me, it become easy to take on new projects to occupy my time. And since most of those projects were church focused, I made excuses that I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do. Even though I was doing things that benefited the church, I was not in a place to receive any sort of spiritual blessing from it because it was not being done out of obedience. Looking back, I was doing those things more for myself than for any other reason. In other words, I was wasting my time, even though it was beneficial to my church, on things that has no eternal value.

We use our own understanding…

While in graduate school, I remember a discussion we had during an environmental policy class. A fellow student was arguing with the professor over what one of the laws we were discussing in class. What did the law mean  actually meant and what its purpose was. Rightly so, the professor told the student that it is important to understand what the courts have said about the law and even the best of intentions can be wrong if we act on what we think the law means. This is exactly what the Lord tells us to do: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

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Don’t be unprepared; look at the forecast

6a0148c78b79ee970c017743a96d12970d-800wiNo matter how big our plans are we all have a tendency to check the local forecast before we head out to work, school, or even a family vacation.  We want to be ready for whatever the weather might bring for that day.   We want to know whether to pack for warm temperatures or for cold; we want to know if we need to worry about rain or take sunscreen for those bright sunny days.  With the development of smart phones, some of us have even begun to check the weather nearly every hour out of the sheer need to know everything that might affect us later that day.  Over the last fifteen years, there has even been a cable channel, The Weather Channel, that devotes a 24 hour cycle of the latest weather prediction for the local area.  With all our changes in technology, we still are amazed when we see the stories of people caught off guard by storms.  In fact, I even had someone tell me they found it nearly impossible to believe that so many people can be caught unprepared for what the weather may bring.

Each of us have had some rough times in our lives.  We all carry the scars of various storms of life that we really were not prepared to handle.  Although we like to think of ourselves as intelligent and well-prepared, we rarely stop to think about the consequences of our actions and the very storms that threaten to overtake us are actually the ones we set into motion.  The Bible contains a warning for us today as God warned Cain all those years ago: If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door (Genesis 4:7a). This advice, or forecast, that God gave Cain is the same advice He offers us today – take the time to carefully consider what you are about to do. While I have heard many preachers and messages on Cain and him being the first murderer, he also has another distinction – he is the third person that the Bible records acted on impulse and emotions rather than by following God’s plan or contemplating his choices.  Simply put, Cain was the author of the storm that would overcome him; he was the source of the emotional hurricane that would wreck his life.

It is not natural for our flesh to think about the consequences of our actions. None of us have ever made every decision in our life with careful contemplation about what the final outcome may be.  When God had sent out the prophets throughout Israel and Judah to try to warn them of the pending judgment of God to come, the Holy Spirit led the prophet Haggai to write: Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways (Haggai 1:5). God warned Israel and Judah through the prophet Isaiah: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Even as Christians, we see ourselves and our lives through a flesh-tainted world view.  Even as Christians, many of the storms and difficulties we face are put into motion by our tendencies to act first before we consider the consequences or what God’s will may be for us.  God even lamented during the exodus of Israel, O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! (Deuteronomy 32:29).

There are some storms and difficulties we face that are not the result of our own decisions or actions.  We also know people who fall into this category that have experienced the death of a loved one, a job loss as the economy has deteriorated, or any number of other issues.  Job did not ask for his storm either, yet the storm came anyway.  The decisions we make during these times can also have consequences that shape our future.  Within the life of Job, as told by the book that bears his name, there were two choices offered.  His wife felt that he had nothing else to live for;  Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die (Job 2:9). Yes, he would lose all his children, his wife, and his earthly wealth but he never lost his faith in God.  While he did begin to question God, he never lost sight that God was in control.  During the earthly ministry of Jesus, He mentioned two men, one that built his house upon the sand and the other who built his house upon the rock.  I have often wondered if the Lord Jesus Christ thought of His servant Job as he taught He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock (Luke 6:48).

When Jesus taught that about building on the foundation of the rock, He was essentially telling all who would listen to prepare for the storms that are approaching.  It’s too late to prepare for the storms when you hear the thunder. It’s too late to seek Godly counsel about a decision you’ve made after you’ve already acted on your own (although it is never too late to repent and seek forgiveness for a bad decision and ask for wisdom to do what is right from that point forward). Whatever issue you face, whatever temptation is at your door, whatever decision you must make, God wants you to consider the consequences for what course you choose. Check the forecast and know what waits ahead.

Christian discipleship from a superhero

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In the town of Metropolis, Illinois, a statue stands in front of the local municipal building that celebrate the connection of the town’s name with that famous superhero from DC Comics – Superman.   In fact, the entire town is one big play on that connection.  The local newspaper, The Planet, even has a logo that is a lot like the logo of The Daily Planet, the newspaper that Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent, worked for during his journey on Earth.  Next month, the entire community will be deeply involved with the annual Superman Festival.  No one thinks it strange when old and young, male or female, walks around that town dressed in a costume or a tee shirt of their favorite superhero.

As I was preparing to do today’s entry, I began to search through my library of digital photos to find an image for what I had planned to connect to today’s lesson.  Instead, what happened was that as I was looking in the folder, the image of Superman who “fights for truth, justice, and the American way…”  really stuck in my mind.  There’s a spiritual lesson to be learned from the concept of Superman; its not in his mighty strength, his alien origins, or even in his alter ego and romantic interests, but within the concept of what Superman has come to represent to generations of Americans since this comic book character’s introduction many years ago.  Besides the outlandish costume complete with cape, there are other things that Superman did possess:  integrity, honesty, compassion, and a never ending pursuit of justice and righteousness. Superman, who generations were introduced through radio and television serials, comic books, cartoons, and even a few movies, defended the concepts of justice, righteousness, and freedom.

Anyone who knows anything about Superman knows that kryptonite was that mysterious rock that caused Superman to lose his powers. While he was nowhere near the stuff, he was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and could leap tall buildings in a single bound… (I could not resist the old television show tag!).  But just as soon as someone brought in a small chunk of kryptonite, his powers were gone and he was only as strong as a normal man.  What an accurate description of what happens in the life and testimony of a Christian when sin enters into the picture.  The apostle Paul wrote on this very topic as a warning to the early church at Corinth about the dangers of even just the minutest sin within the life of the believer, Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (I Corinthians 5:6-8).

For Christians, even just a little sin in our lives can destroy our testimony and render us ineffective for the Lord.  As a child of God, we cannot be possessed by Satan nor can we be condemned to hell but we can have our ability to serve God while in this life diminished. To have a life that honors God, that allows us to selflessly serve Him, and to enjoy the fullness of our salvation, we must examine ourselves daily.  Even the Old Testament prophets brought God’s warning to his people, Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways (Haggai 1:6-7). All of these things listed were areas where it was hard to become content, to be comfortable with what they had.  Of course, the minor prophet, Haggai, later explains that their inattention to the things of God had led to God withholding his blessings from them.  When we choose to remain tied fastly to our sins, we choose to remove ourselves from a place of heavenly blessings!

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