“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”
+Psalm 42:11
(Source: thisshipatsea, via lifescountlessblessings)
(Source: godrite, via crazy-beautiful-love)
Zechariah 4:6-7
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ “
Background Information:
After 70 years, the Jews from Jerusalem can finally leave Babylonian Captivity. They were in Captivity for straying away from God, and when prophets came telling them to repent and turn away from worshiping idols they refused to. They believed God wouldn’t punish them or believed they still had time to do whatever they wanted then repent later, but they were extremely wrong. When God allowed Babylon to take them into captivity, the temple that Solomon (the son of David) built for God was destroyed. So the first thing the Jews were assigned to do when they came out of captivity was to rebuild the temple, but a lot of discouragement came from internal and external enemies.
Principles:
*The flesh cannot complete a spiritual assignment*
When Zerubbabel was leading the Jews to rebuild the temple he encountered constant opposition and became discouraged. He didn’t know how the temple was going to be built as magnificent as the first and he had the enemy trying to distract him, so the construction was halted for 16 years. But God told Zechariah that “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” Zerubbabel would build the temple, which means Zerubbabel didn’t have to be strong, confident, or have a game plan for how the temple should be built because God’s spirit would lead him.
It’s amazing and comforting to know that we don’t have to worry about anything when God calls us to do something because He already knows what we need, who we need, and when we will need all of these things to accomplish His goal, which will be revealed in due time.
When God reveals something He wants us to do or has in store for us, we try to treat it likes we are preparing for a race. We try to figure out how we’re going to cross the finish line, what we need to do to maintain our strength during the race, how many people we are going to need to guide us through, who we need to run with us, and the resources we will need to win the race. But all of that is coming from a human, worldly perspective. We see the order in which something needs to happen for the best possible result. But God does not think like us. He already knows the answers to all those questions and doesn’t need us to worry about it.
The next thing we start to do is comparing ourselves to others in the race. We may look at them and see that they’re running faster because they have “better” shoes or because they are “better” equipped since they’ve practiced a thousand times unlike us, but what is better? How can we compare ourselves to people who have a different anointing than us? How can we try to imitate people we are not? What if they are anointed to run in the race, but never to finish it, but to just pass the torch down to someone else (Kind of like Moses giving his leadership over Israel to Joshua)? What if the people running beside us are running in a different race, how could we compare ourselves to people who aren’t even going in the same direction as us?
That’s why we have to trust God even if we do not understand what He’s doing, or why He is allowing certain things to happen. The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” So we must not only trust in God but submit to what He is asking us to do, whether it’s letting go of someone or doing something that may seem crazy; we should always yield to His desire even if we do not agree with it because eventually we will.
Often times we as Christians we do not seem to understand that trusting in God does not always mean we have to like what he’s doing or understand it. Trusting in God means that although we do not understand what He’s doing, we are upset about it, or don’t want to do it, we believe in Him and know that everything that transpires is for a reason and purpose.
*All hindrances and interruptions that come shall cease to exist*
As I mentioned before for sixteen years the Jews stopped working on the temple because of hindrances such as people comparing the new temple to the old temple, but also because their enemies were trying to infiltrate the work force and put a halt to the their progress. Their enemies even went as far as to write a letter to the King of Babylon basically saying you should look up the past history of these Jews and look at how rebellious they are towards their leaders, look at all the destruction they have caused because of their power. So the King declares that the Jews must stop working on the temple, which causes them to become discouraged. But Zechariah was one of the prophets sent to encourage Zerubbabel to lead the exiles to keep building the temple. God told Zechariah “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground,” which means that all of the obstacles that were preventing Zerubbabel from leading the Jews to build the temple would decrease in size until he could overcome it, eventually ceasing to ever exist.
So if we know that whatever is hindering us from moving forward with God must come to an end, why even stress about? Why even give our enemies the satisfaction of seeing us coming to an halt, where we can start to become discouraged and hopeless? As soon as we start fixating our eyes on our issues instead of God we become a tide in an ocean, blowing wherever the wind blows instead of standing firm in one place. We have to realize that there is nothing the enemy can throw at us that we cannot overcome. In fact we have already overcome because we are more than conquerors.
Once again the reason why we allow distress to come is because we are thinking in a fleshy mentality. Because we are looking at the present and the dangers surrounding us we don’t see revival, restoration, or a rescue in the future. We can’t do it on our own or rely on people who will always fail us. We have to realize that only one person has our back, only one person will never fail, only one person is willing to do anything for us, including die, and that is Jesus. Only He can help us through, only He can give us hope, only He can turn a horrible, terrifying storm into something beautiful and mesmerizing.
*The completion will be for the glorification of God*
After all the distractions and obstacles that Zerubbabel faced, God was still glorified because He helped Zerubbabel overcome, which showed how faithful God was to him. Zerubbabel sought God’s approval over the temple and proclaimed “God bless it! God bless it!”
So when we finally complete what God has called us to do, it will be to glorify Him, not the glorification of ourselves or the acceptance from others. We should never seek a pat on the back for something we do for Christ from other people because that means we are doing things to please people rather than God.
(Source: awakenthelightinside)
(Source: wherethereisnone)
Scripture
Hosea 2:14-23 (God’s promise to me)
Scripture
If we live, we live for the LORD;
and if we die, we die for the LORD.
So, whether we live or die,
we belong to the LORD.
+Romans 14:8
(Source: misaeljimenez, via band-aids-and-bruises-deactivat)
