For anyone in a season of mourning that's beginning to feel more like an unrelenting spiritual attack than a valid grief or trauma response... or for anyone who's struggling to focus with hope on what lies ahead of them, I recommend reading the following and maybe listening to this sermon online HERE.
(*The podcast was oddly quiet this week - something was off with the audio where I really could not hear it, but that made me suspicious that someone might be trying to keep me from hearing it, so I looked it up online, and I'm thankful I did!)
"The word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai. 'Speak to Zerubbabel... and to Joshua... and to the remnant of the people. Ask them: 'Who among you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? BUT NOW, be strong, Zerubbabel,' declares the Lord. 'Be strong, Joshua... Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the Lord, 'and work. For I am with you,' declares the Lord Almighty. 'This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear... The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the Lord Almighty. 'And in this place, I will grant peace,' declares the Lord Almighty." ~Haggai 2:2-9
Quotes by Pastor Steven Furtick in his latest sermon over the text above:
"Is wishing for something you don't have keeping you from working with what you do have!?"
"Commitments can be broken, but covenants cannot, especially when one of the parties is the One who cannot lie... God said, 'Speak to the remnant.' A remnant can represent a fragment. If I'm the enemy, I'm going to try to get you so focused on who left that you don't see what's left. There is a remnant... even if it's a fraction of what it once was, there's still a remnant!"
"For everything that left your life, God has made a covenant with you: I am with you to this day (and to the end of the age!). If God is for us, who can be against us!?"
(He's paraphrasing 1 Samuel 16:1 when Samuel was grieving over King Saul's failure here...) "How long will you mourn over what God has rejected? Fill your horn with oil. David is in the field."
"He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it, but you've got to be strong and do the work. You're not working on your own. It is God who works in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So maybe God brought you here to remind you what you're working with: that there is a remnant. That God has left everything in your life that He intends to use for this next season... He's bringing you from glory to glory. What's coming is better than what is gone. The glory of this present house will be greater. What God is doing right now shall be greater!"
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