Then the Word of the Lord came

As I layed awake in bed on Sunday morning, I felt a holy spirit nudge in my heart.  A "whisper" (if you will) said, "Heather, you are well loved, well cared for, you are Mine.  This day is just like everyday.  This day is a day I have made.  It is about Me, about giving Me glory, about submitting to My reign."  My heart felt very full, and I knew that was my mother's day gift...the very best one I could ever receive.  I decided in that moment that this Mother's day was going to be about submitting to the will of my Father.

Haggai 1:3-6 (New International Version)

 ³ Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ⁴ "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?"

 ⁵;Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. ⁶ You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

The reason Mother's Day (Christmas, Birthdays, Vacations, ..) can feel so empty is because they are days when I am focusing on me...on Jack filling me to the point of overflow, on me filling me to the point of overflow, on gifts filling me to the point of overflow, on experiences filling me to the point of overflow...I wait, and wait..and I never feel satisfied, I never feel full...nothing fills me.  Jack can't, I can't, gifts can't, experiences can't....and I get angry.  I didn't feel full because Jack didn't deliver..he didn't do a good enough job of trying..if he would have just done it this way or that way, I would feel satisfied.  The lies I tell myself add to my discontent.

This is God's charge: Repent!

Haggai 1:7-8 (New International Version)

 ⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says: Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored," says the LORD.

"Give careful thought" another version says "Consider your ways"...Take a good hard look at your life...your previous and present conduct and how you fared, Heather.  Did it work?  Were you living in a way that made you feel satisfied and gave My name glory?  Did you love Jack well?  Did you add life and love to your home and your family?  Think about it...and repent. Turn from the dissatisfaction of worshiping Heather and her happiness...stop trying to fill myself, because that will just leave me dry.

Haggai 1:9-11 (New International Version)

⁹ "You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the LORD Almighty. "Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands."

This is God's Charge: Obey!

Haggai 1:12 (Amplified Bible)

¹²Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people [who had returned from captivity], listened to and obeyed the voice of the Lord their God [not vaguely or partly, but completely, according to] the words of Haggai the prophet, since the Lord their God had sent him, and the people [reverently] feared and [worshipfully] turned to the Lord.

I know what the world is saying to us is completely counter this Word..and if feels wrong..it feels like you are denying yourself things that you DESERVE as a woman, but I want you to blindly obey me.--the Lord is saying.  Fill your life with His word and prayer and the outcome will lead to obedience.  A life that is committed to giving Him Glory..and life that is unfocused on my needs..When I screw up, which I know I will..He calls me to turn and repent and obey again and again and again..

This is God's Promise: Presence!

Haggai 1:13-14 (Amplified Bible)

¹³Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke the Lord's message to the people saying, I am with you, says the Lord.

    ¹⁴And the Lord aroused 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 all the remnant of the people, so that they came and labored on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,

This Mother's Day felt very full!  The Lord was loving on me all day long....when Jack woke up early and fixed me breakfast, when Jackson made me a mother's day card, when Jack gave me flowers to wear to church, when the sermon was from Haggai 1,when Jack left church early to go out to the car because he felt terribly sick, when I fed Jackson lunch as he was screaming, when Jack layed on the sofa as I fixed him chicken noodle soup, when Jack's parents came to take us to dinner, and when I washed my yummy tuna steak down with a glass of Riesling.  The whole day..the hard stuff and the joyful stuff..the Lord was with me, for me, and the Lord was glorifed.


For a complete recording of Hal's Haggai sermon click below (it won't be available until May 13th or so):
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