“Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,” declares the lord. “Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, 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. “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”
This is what the lord Almighty says: “In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory. … And in this place I will grant peace.”
Character Check In what area of my life do I feel small? How has God used that for his glory?
In Business Terms The Bible says we should not despise the day of small things. God’s work is done “not by might nor by power but by my Spirit.”
For instance, I’m praying for a person losing his well-paid position with IBM. His wife is in agony about all the changes, so we’ve been looking to God for answers. God impressed upon me that this woman had been hurt so many times that she no longer could believe in God’s goodness. With that knowledge, I knew I should pray that she would see the goodness of God in order to remove the fear that stems from all her hurts.
We shouldn’t see this kind of surrender as some heroic deed to become spiritual. Instead it should be a release to God. People who are discontented and angry at God about their day of small things miss the chance for God to do something in their lives.
Wherever we are-in our family, in our community, in our education, even in our culture-no matter how small or despised that place may be, that is where God can use us and bless us. We may not achieve the dreams of our youth, but we can be sure God will bring us into the dreams he has for us.
—Dallas Willard
Something to Think About Next to faith this is the highest art—to be content with where God has placed you. I have not learned it yet. – Martin Luther
