Yesterday morning’s Bible reading involved Haggai 1 in which is found the following passage:

So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius. Haggai (1:14-15)

The backstory is that the exiles from Babylon had returned to Jerusalem and had begun to put their lives back together. Houses were being built; crops were being planted and harvested; community life was being reorganized taking on a semblance of normalcy. However, according to the word of the Lord that had come to the prophet Haggai, there was a huge problem: the house of the Lord (the temple) remained a ruin (Haggai 1:4, 9). This oversight, said the prophet Haggai, was the reason why the people in the land had yet to experience God’s full blessing on all their life re-building endeavors (Haggai 1:5-6, 10-11).  The call of Haggai’s propehcy was for the people to come correct and and make the rebuilding of the house of the Lord a priority (Haggai 1:8). The implication of this prophetic message was that putting God first in their lives would put these people in a position to experience his full blessing. 

The chapter goes on to say that the people responded well to the prophetic preaching of Haggai—the orientation of their hearts to the message was one of obedience to it (Haggai 1:12). In response to this, a second word of the Lord came through Haggai to the people, assuring them that God was (and would be) with them. It’s then that we read of the Lord stirring up the spirit of the people and their leaders to actually begin the work or re-building the temple.

The idea of the Lord stirring up the Spirit of a group of people to become involved in a ministry project, the importance of which they had not correctly assessed before, was on my mind all day yesterday and is still with me today. Could it be that I am overlooking something that God considers very important? Should I so quickly assume that my prorities are God’s priorities? Is there something I need to be doing in order to please God and bring him the honor he deserves (Haggai 1:8) that I’m not doing right now?

Now, while this medidation could end on a negative, self-critical note, I don’t intend for it to. The biblical text ultimately says that the Lord stirred up the spirit of the people, encouraging and empowering them to do that which would please him and put them in a position to experience his best blessings in their lives. That’s grace!

Over the years I’ve found that we have a God who is so gracious that he can be counted on to provide his people with the “spirit” and “heart” they need in order to live their lives in a way that’s pleasing to him and good for themselves. All we have to do is ask. For example:

• In Psalm 51:12 we read of David requesting that the Lord would grant him a “willing spirit,” that he might do better at pleasing him.
• In Psalm 86:11 we read of David asking God to give him an “undivided heart” that he might fear his name.
• In Psalm 138:3 we read of David giving thanks that the Lord heard his prayer and responded by making him “bold and stouthearted.”

Isn’t it good to know that we serve a God who not only instructs us in the way we should live but then is willing to provide us with that which we need in order to do so: e.g., a “willing spirit” and a “heart” that is both “undivided” and “stout” (sturdy, resolute, determined, strong)?

The Haggai text tells us that in response to the orientation of their hearts to want to obey the prophetic word they had received, the Lord stirred up the spirit of the people enabling them to accomplish the very thing he was calling them to do. Again, that’s grace—empowering grace—and I need/want as much of it as I can get. How about you?

Something to think about.