A Faithful Response

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”
Haggai 2:10–19
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A Faithful Response
We all want a relationship with God. The problem comes when we want to set the terms of that relationship. We want to dictate how God will bless us and when. We want to tell God what is right and wrong and ignore His will. We want God to be pleased with being second or third in line for our attention. The people in Haggai’s day had not received the blessings they expected from the Lord. And the offerings they brought to the Lord were unclean because of their earlier failure to rebuild the temple. Yet God still remained faithful to His people, and now He promises to bless them. The people of Judah need to realize that without this blessing, both the temple-building project and their crops would suffer. Likewise, we also need the Lord to bless us, for without Him, we can do nothing. By His bodily presence in Christ, He has demonstrated His gracious kindness to us. We can depend on Him to provide for all our needs, both spiritual and physical.  We ask our heavenly Father for forgiveness for the times we have lived our lives without considering Him. His Holy Spirit gives us the strength to depend on Him to bless all that we undertake as His children.