HAGGAI 1:13-15: “Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord , spoke by the commission of the Lord to the people, saying, “ ‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord .” So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of armies, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.” NASB

OBSERVATION: Have I lost my zeal for the Lord? Has the vision and call of the Lord in my life grown dim? Have I begun to settle for a life of routine and the ordinary? Am I excited to get up each day or do I struggle out of bed thinking – “Another day!”

Lord, stir me up!

The older we get and the more disappointments we experience in life, the more we are prone to settle. “Well, I guess this is as good as it gets.”, we think. We look back at the days of our youth when we had dreams and visions of the future and we long for these days but they seem so far away. Something deep within our hearts cries out…

Lord – Stir me up!

The prophet Haggai was sent to the remnant of Jerusalem that had returned under the order of Cyrus the Median and Persian King. They had returned to Jerusalem with great hopes of rebuilding the ruins of the city, the wall, and the Temple. They were given permission and were supplied with every resource they needed to do this. Yet, they faced great opposition as they began the work.

God sent the prophet Haggai to speak into their lives at one of the lowest points they had found themselves in since they were captives. They had settled with simply living in their restored homes and laid down their vision of rebuilding the Temple of God. In the midst of this God allowed them to experience a period of lack so that they would turn their hearts to the Lord.

Yet – instead of turning to the Lord – they settled in their lack!

How easy is it for us to simply settle? We get attacked by the enemy of our souls, we battle and grow weary, and then we are tempted to settle. We think – “I am too tired to go on.”. Every person has faced this time of settling in their lives. We begin to live what we call a hum-drum life. There is no excitement in our hearts, no expectation for the future. It is in these times we need to cry out,

Lord, stir me up!

The Lord loves us enough to allow us to go through extremely dry and limited times in our lives if we lay down our vision. Proverbs tells us that without a vision the people perish and cast off restraint. What simply starts as settling can soon become compromise. God’s love wrestles with our hearts and His word comes to us and calls us to rise up once again and fulfill the call He has given us!

This is what the Lord did in the lives and hearts of the children of Israel who had returned from the Babylonian captivity. He used people like Haggai, Nehemiah, and Ezra to stir up His people so that they would fulfill the work He had called them to do. God always sends His Word to His people – if we have ears to hear. Jesus, in His parable about the sower and the seed, closes His teaching with these words.

• “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.” Luke 8:18

How we hear the Word of the Lord will determine whether we are revived or continue to be stuck in a rut. God’s Word comes to awaken our hearts, it comes to revive our souls, it comes to renew our spirits, it comes to redirect our paths, it comes to open our eyes, strengthen our hearts, and restore us to His calling and vision for our lives.

God’s Word comes to – STIR US UP!

• “So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of armies, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.” Haggai 1:14-15

Heavenly Father – I need to hear Your Word today! I need You to stir me up. I need to be revived and redirected to complete the call You have placed on my life. Stir me up this morning I pray. Break up the fallow ground so that I can receive the seeds of Your righteousness. Help me never to settle, but like Paul, to press on to the high upward call of Christ Jesus my Lord!

• “Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

In Jesus’ Name!