Remember Why You Are Here

This morning I was reading a devotional and it came from the book of Haggai. As I was reading there was several verses that stuck out to me. The first one was:

'" You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?" This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies, "Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house."' (Haggai 1:9)

Now what stuck out to me was why God would say, "I ruined it." Like isn't God supposed to me an all loving, gracious, and generous God? And He is those things, but it's in the context of this text why we see that He ruined something. He ruined their harvest because they were no longer serving God. He ruined their harvest because they were too busy gathering goods with their own strength that they lost sight of who was giving them their strength. And lastly He ruined it, because they were no longer dedicating time towards rebuilding God's temple. Instead, they were enjoying the houses God had given them and were no longer paying attention to the work they still had to do.

This verse made me realize that just because my life might be great right now, it doesn't mean I should stop doing the work God has set out for me to do. Yes, community might be great right now, yes opportunities are rising, yes I finally feel at peace knowing I successfully graduated high school, these things are amazing, they are, but that doesn't mean I should start becoming complacent in the glory season. And if I'm being honest, I was growing a little complacent. I was so in awe, and hyper focused on all God's been doing that I haven't spent a whole lot of time reading my bible lately, which to me, reading has gotten me through the hardest of seasons.

So why is it that now once everything is clicking, that I'm losing grip on what got me here? Well, it's because I rather soak in the promises than keep returning to what's left for me to learn, and frankly, that's not what I should be doing. Now there's nothing wrong with enjoying the unfolded promises, but there is a problem when you stop returning to the word, and to the One who gave it to you. There's a problem when you think you already know it all, so you don't think you have to keep reading, or praising, or surrendering. We will never know it all, I will never know it all. That truth might shake you up, and if it does, I'm glad. Because it's a truth I had to realize. I need to keep returning, I need to keep seeking, because the moment I stop, that means I think I'm in charge and that I'm good on my own, which I definitely know I'm not.

So that's why He ruined the harvest, because they were enjoying the fruits of His labor without returning to give thanks and continuing in building His kingdom.

“Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel — this is the Lord’s declaration. Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land — this is the Lord’s declaration. Work! For I am with you — the declaration of the Lord of Armies.” (Haggai 2:4)

You see, although they had strayed away from God, He didn't stray away from them, rather in that verse He calls them back to work, and not only does he call them back but He says, " Work! For I am with you..." God doesn't want you to do life on your own, He knows that will amount to nothing. Instead, He assigns you a task, and remains alongside you as it gets completed. He's a God who does care, He's a Father who wants the best for His children. He just wants you to know that He's the only one who can bring you blessings, and wants to redirect your focus back to Him, and not to your own doings. Because quite often, pride gets the best of us, and that only ever brings destruction. "Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom" (Proverbs 11:2)

So humble yourselves, step out of what you think you know, and surrender it to the One who does know. In 2 Corinthians 9 verse 10 it says, "For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you." God is the provider, and He has always been. But when you take your focus off of Him and forget why and how you were brought to the place where you are at, He will take it all away. He will take it away for you to recognize your purpose again, to reaffirm where you place your hope, and to shake your pride so you can walk humbly again.

I end with this verse from Haggai 2:15-16,

““Now from this day on, think carefully: Before one stone was placed on another in the Lord’s temple, what state were you in? When someone came to a grain heap of twenty measures, it only amounted to ten; when one came to the winepress to dip fifty measures from the vat, it only amounted to twenty.”

"What state were you in?" Wow. That's powerful and it's powerful because whatever mindset you carry with you to complete a task, is the factor that is going to determine the outcome of it. So God ends the passage with the repetitive lines of, "Think Carefully". And He says this because He doesn't want you to neglect your purpose. He doesn't want you to forget all the sacrifice it took to get you here. And most importantly He doesn't want you to lose sight that He's the one who brought you from your past to the present. Therefore He asks you to think before you do. Think about that text you are going to send, think about that job you want to take, think about how you are living your life, just think about it. And while you are thinking go ahead and ask yourself, "What state am I in?" Because the posture of your heart will be magnified once you start something.