“But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord.  ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest.  Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work.  For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” ~ Haggai 2:4 (NIV)

This is the theme verse of my current season.  If I were to sum it up, it says:

Be strong. 

Get to work.

I am with you.

In that one verse, God gives a word of encouragement (be strong), a word of command/purpose (get to work), and a word of promise (I am with you).  Personally, these are all things I tend to lack, so finding it all in one place is powerful.

While there is much we could unpack here, I want us to take a closer look at the structure of this text: Be strong.  Get to work.  I am with you.  It starts with encouragement, moves into the command, and culminates with the promise.

Think about the positioning of those words for a minute. 

In between the encouragement and the promise, is the command: Get to work.  It’s almost as if God knows we need both the encouragement and the promise to do the work God has called us to…

You see, as much as I wish this wasn't the case, more often than not the work God calls us to (in Haggai 2, it meant rebuilding temple) is hard work.  It’s rarely easy.  In fact, we know that the temple rebuilding work God had called these people to had stopped multiple times for (at least) two very different reasons. 

In Ezra 4, we’re told that no sooner than the work began, opposition arose.  Aggressive resistance came barreling their way through people willing to do anything and everything they could to stop the work on the temple.  And for a time, they succeeded.  The work was halted. 

I know it sounds so basic, but don't less the elementary nature of this reminder overshadow its significance.  The work God calls us to is hard work and will require every ounce of strength we can muster.  Jesus said if we’re going to follow Him, we must count the cost and consider just how daunting the task of following Him really is.  Following Jesus isn’t for the faint of heart. 

God, however, doesn’t just call us to strength, as if our own hard work was enough.  He calls us to remember His presence with us – to be people who live with an ever-increasing awareness of God’s presence in our lives.

You see, the temple work didn’t just stop because opposition arose.  The prophet Haggai tells us there was another reason the hard work of rebuilding the temple stalled out.  He says the people got… distracted. 

In Haggai 1, the Lord says, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” ~ Haggai 1:4 (NIV)

God’s point?  The people hadn’t really stopped working – they’d simply redirected their work. Rather than doing the hard work God had called them to, they poured their energies into their own homes, their own houses, their own lives.  In other words, they focused their energies on how they lived in general (their house, their comforts, etc.) rather than how they lived before God (their character, their obedience, etc.). 

The book of 1 John offers us this word of warning: “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.  These are not from the Father, but are from this world. ~ 1 John 2:16 (NLT).  John warns us that if we’re not careful, we can get so caught up in work that ensures our own pleasures and comfort that we fail to participate in the work God calls us to.

As the people of Haggai’s day learned the hard way, when we live without a meaningful sense of God’s presence in our lives, it’s only a matter of time before the delights of the world become distractions that pull us away from the work God calls us to. 

Sometimes the opposition comes from outside of us as it did in Ezra 4.  In those moments we must dig deep into our reservoirs of resolve and resilience, be strong and do the work.  Sometimes the opposition comes from within us as we saw in Haggai 1. Here our own hearts betray us, distracted by the delights of the world, and in those moments, we must develop a growing awareness of God’s presence to stay focused on the right work, however difficult it may be.

The bottom line is, we need strong, resilient hearts deeply reliant upon God's presence with us right here, right now, if we are to continue in the work God has called us to.

I'm not sure what that work is for you, but I pray the words of Haggai 2:4 would offer you a word of hope in the midst of your work.

Be strong.

Get to work.

I am with you.

So, may you find your strength to follow Jesus renewed, may you live with an ever-increasing awareness of God’s presence, and as your resolve and awareness increase, may you do the work – whatever that work is – for the glory of God and the sake of the world.