FEAR NOT: Because God Is
Day 21My Spirit Remains
Scripture
Haggai 2:4–5 · · ESV
The people had returned from exile, but the temple was still unfinished. For years the work had stalled. Then God called His people back to the work. Less than a month into the renewed work, discouragement was already setting in.
The Israelites stood amid the dust and unfinished work in Jerusalem. Some of them were older people who remembered Jerusalem before the exile. Perhaps some had been among those who wept years earlier when the new foundation was laid. They remembered what had once stood there. Solomon’s temple had cedar and gold. It was magnificent.
But now, the Lord had stirred the spirit of Governor Zerubbabel, High Priest Joshua, and the people. And they had picked up their tools once more.
Yet, as they looked at the modest work before them, it seemed impossible that the temple they were building could ever compare with what was lost. It seemed so small by comparison.
They might have been thinking, “I’m afraid what we’re doing isn’t enough. This isn’t what I thought rebuilding would look like.”
Then Haggai spoke the words of the Lord into their doubts:
Be strong. Work. I am with you.
Fear not.
Remember Day 6, when we looked at the people of Israel as they stood beside Mount Sinai? Through Haggai, God reminded His people of the covenant He made when their ancestors came out of Egypt. He had not abandoned them. And His Spirit was still with them.
God had called them back to the work, and now He was encouraging them to keep going.
The temple was more than a building to be measured against the one they had lost. The living God had not abandoned His people. His Spirit remained among them.
What has God asked you to keep building when what you see in front of you seems smaller or less beautiful than you expected?
Maybe you are beginning life again after retirement, divorce, illness, a move, or children leaving home.
Maybe the rebuilding just isn’t what you thought it would be. But keep in mind: the size or beauty of what you can see is not a measure of God’s presence. Even when what you are rebuilding looks nothing like what you hoped, God has not changed.
Through Christ, I can trust God’s presence even when the work before me seems small.
FEAR NOT when the work before you seems small.
BECAUSE GOD IS with you, and His Spirit remains.
Is there something you’ve been rebuilding that doesn’t look the way you hoped it would?
Prayer
When the work before me feels small or disappointing, help me to keep going. Remind me that You are with me. Help me trust Your presence more than what I can see.
Amen.
Amelia