Haggai Chapter 2

Sometimes, I look around and am just overwhelmed by everything that is going on around me, at work, in the family, in the country, the world. There is so much evil around, with the knife crime here in the UK, genocide and war throughout the world, famine, suffering, poverty, persecution, how can one person make any difference? Just like the Israelites who remembered the old Temple, the one built by Solomon and were now faced with its ruins and the daunting task of rebuilding it. They were overwhelmed by it, and did not know how they were going to do the job.

But our God is the same now as He was then and as He will be in the future. He is with each one of us, just as He was with the Israelites when they returned from exile. Nothing is impossible for God.

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Numbers 11:23 - The Lord answered Moses, "Is the Lord's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you."

Nothing is impossible for God - He sees everything, knows everything and there is nowhere we can go where God will not be. We may be faced with a daunting task, but with God by our side, all things are possible. We just need to turn to Him, to put Him first in our lives, to get our priorities straight and everything else will flow from there.

And I love the examples here about holiness and sin. When the priests were carrying something holy, meat from a sacrifice, and brushed against some other food such as bread, or wine, it did not make that bread or wine holy. But when they came into contact with, say a dead body, they became unclean, and if they then touched the food, that food became unclean.

We can't become holy just by being around holy things, by being in church, having believers who are friends, by working in a church, giving our time, our money. You can't catch Christianity, you have to make a choice, to choose whether to believe or not, just as standing in a garage doesn't make you a car. But you can catch sin, it will rub off on you because of where you go, the things you do, the people you mix with. If all your friends swear, drink to excess, take drugs, sleep around, then pretty soon, you will be drawn into behaving exactly the same way, no matter what your intentions are. The only way out of this dilemma is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to let him lead and guide us, show us the things we are doing that are wrong, to listen to that little voice inside that gives us a nudge when we are about to do something we shouldn't.

Not always an easy thing to do if we like our friends and do not want to leave them. But just read the last few words in this chapter: "for I have chosen you,' declares the Lord Almighty."
The Lord God Almighty has chosen you, chosen me, and He has done so for a reason. You may not have a very high opinion of yourself, or your abilities, but God has chosen you. You may not know what task He has chosen you for, but it was you, out of everyone else in the world, that He picked. Not your mother or father, a friend or work colleague, not someone who is a great preacher, a wonderful speaker, someone who can pray great prayers that really inspire and you just know God will answer, but you, no matter how ordinary or mundane you may feel you are. You, me, are unique, special, chosen by God, and if the God who created the universe and all that is in it thinks you are worthy of being chosen, why do you think you are worthless?