I'm Following Jesus – Page 2040 – Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Chapters: The Book of Haggai
Message: Get Back To My Work

Hello My Friend,

I talked with God for over an hour and a half today, rambling on about my jobs, and why I am not getting anywhere with them. I kept asking Him what His will for me in all this really is, then as I read today’s chapters He gave me the answer. “My work comes first.” Now, I am a nursery director at church and possibly next year I will be a secretary there, but I have my I’m Following Jesus ministry as well, and while I do write the devotions daily, I lack in completing the pages about religion, and I am reading these chapters He reminded me of that. Not to mention He reminded me of this a couple of weeks ago when my preacher preached on the same chapter. God has a purpose for each and every one of us, His work must come first, or else we will struggle until we do it. “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” – Revelation 2:2-5.

“because thou hast left thy first love.” The Book of Haggai contains two chapters, the author is Haggai and it was written to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem from Babylon after being in captivity for seventy years, the timeline is approximately 520 BC. The purpose of the book was to inspire Israel to have a new zeal for God and make the leaders aware of their responsibility to rebuild the temple of worship. What we are to learn from the book is that God demands first place in our lives. We learned in the Book of Ezra that God sent Haggai to get them back to rebuilding the temple, today we read about Haggai and how he influenced the people to return to their first love.

“Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 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. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.” – Haggai 1:2-9.

“Because of mine house that is waste,” I get it, they were forced to stop the work, but they just stopped and started rebuilding their lives. Do you ever have times when you work so hard, but the paycheck is so little? I am going through that right now, struggling to fit in work hours between studies, family, and my own battle with my health. I am tired, worn out, and have no idea how I am going to replenish the hours I lost to pay the rent and bills that are due in less that two weeks. Am I complaining? No. I know that God will provide. But I also know that if I do not get His work done that I will continue to suffer. As I write this I am ashamed to admit that I was going through similar struggles this same time last year, and that was when I had gotten back to work on the website the last time I stopped. Life somehow has a way of hindering us from doing God’s work, but you can be sure He will put the fire on us to get us back to doing His Work, and when we do we will start to see His blessings again. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.” – Galatians 5:7-10.

“who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” Who hinders us? The devil. And he loves to throw darts to hinder us from doing what God has called us to do for Him. However, once God sets out for us to do something He will not stop nudging and or afflicting us until we do it. Whenever we start to see little reaping from lots of sowing in our regular work that is when we need to check and see if we are giving God’s work first place. After Haggai spoke, Zerubbabel and the rest of the elders knew they needed to get back to rebuilding God’s house, but this time was different, they knew God had their back.

“Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.” – Haggai 2:3-9.

“The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former,” This is not speaking about the rebuilt temple, but the one in which we will all abide in Christ. Christ is the desire of all nations, for in Him shall all of the families of the earth be blessed upon making Him their Saviour. The shaking of nations will take place during the Tribulation, which will be followed by Christ’s return in all His glory. One thing we can be sure of is that when we put God’s work first He will be there right with us and see us through every step of the way. The work we do for God is not necessarily in the church, but wherever He takes us, we must realize that we are the church, and He will use us wherever He needs us (He reminded me of that this week also), whether it be an office, a grocery store, or a parking garage. If we take no care in the work God called us to do we cannot expect to reap an abundance, even with lots of labor. If we keep Him first we will reap all the benefits, not only in this life, but the one that is to come. “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.” – John 6:27.

Jesus Christ Magnified: “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts:” – Haggai 2:4.

Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for the reminder of Your amazing promise to always be with us. You have purposed every one of Your people to work for You in some way so that we can bring others to Your Son. As life starts to overwhelm us it is easy to set Your work aside in order to try to endure it, and of course, that brings more problems instead of solutions. Lord, Help us to make and keep Your work first place in our lives so that we can find the solutions to our problems and not become so overwhelmed that we lose sight of You. Give us Your power, strength, wisdom, mercy, grace, and guidance to do the work You called us to do, and open our hearts so that we can do it with all our heart. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God Bless You, I am praying for you,

Christina

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