Skip to main content

When Life is Difficult

               It seemed almost impossible.  They had lost everything.  The Babylonians took their land, crushed their cities, and deported God’s people to a new home a thousand kilometers away. 

                For seventy years, they lived in that strange land until God brought them back home.  Finally, they could rebuild their houses, their lives, and, most importantly, the temple of God in Jerusalem.

                Unfortunately, their initial enthusiasm did not last long.  They finished their homes, but they hardly touched the temple.  In fact, when they started working on it, they encountered so much opposition that they decided that it was going to be too hard and they quit.  They had no resources.  They had no support from their neighbours.  It seemed as if everything was against them and, in their discouragement, they just gave up (Haggai 1:2).

                Does any of this sound familiar?  Granted, we have not had our land taken away by some foreign army, but, over the last six months, we have experienced loss and a lot of discouragement.  Many are under stress financially.  We have lost social contacts and our routine has been disrupted to the point that many have begun to feel as though there is no hope.  Calls to mental health centres continue to climb. 

                Where do you turn when life seems out of control?  What do you do when you do not know what to do?

                Zechariah knew those feelings and asked those same questions.  He had been sent to get God’s people working again.  How was he going to motivate a bunch of people when they had already given up?  Then God provided the answer: “’Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’, says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6).  They may not have been able to find any solutions, but God was not defeated.  They had a strength that they had not even accessed yet.

                It is difficult to trust God in hard times because everything we see leads us to believe that there is no hope.  Thankfully, there is more going on than what we see.

                Try your hardest.  Do your best.  But remember, ultimately, your real strength comes from, “…him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Noticing.... Seeing what we need to see and what we miss when we don't

 What we focus on in life matters. Here are some scriptural reminders that will help us see correctly.  https://youtu.be/Rn76tV0ZH8s    
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This.... Which Way Are You Leaning?

   When Ben Patterson agreed to join three friends climbing Mount Lyell, the highest point in Yosemite National Park, he did not realize what he was signing up for.  Early in the day, it became clear that he was completely unprepared for the task.  In an effort to keep up with his more experienced friends, Ben took a shortcut.  It did not occur to him that there might be a reason the others had not selected this route, but he soon found out why.  Ben became stuck on the glacier.  He could not move up, down or sideways and one wrong move would send him sliding down a forty-five-degree slope to the valley floor miles below.   That is when one of his friends came to the rescue. His buddy leaned over the edge and carved some footholds in the ice.  He told Ben to step to the first foothold and immediately swing his other foot to the second, then his buddy would pull him to safety.  Lastly, his friend gave him one more piece of advice....
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Press The Button!

  Consider This:  Press the Button! My favourite TV game show is Jeopardy.  I used to like it even more when my kids were younger, because I could easily beat them and look smart.  These days, after they have grown up and gone to university, it is much more difficult.  However, Jeopardy is still the only game show I will watch. In a book I read, a contestant who did very well on the show shared the secret to his success.  He said (and I am paraphrasing here), “You must press the button before you know the answer.  Everyone on Jeopardy is smart. Everyone knows the answer. The key to winning is to act.  You must jump in and press the button, assuming that your brain will catch up and supply the answer.  If you wait until you are sure, you will be too late!” Press the button! Too often, we hesitate, not because we do not know what to do, but because we do not want to do it.  Sometimes, we fail to act because we are not sure how the situatio...
Post a Comment
Read more