“FEAR NOT!”

Haggai 2:1-5                                            (ESV)

“1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet:

2 "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say,

3 'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?

4 Yet 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.  WORK, FOR I AM WITH YOU, declares the LORD of hosts,

5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt.  MY SPIRIT remains in your midst. “FEAR NOT”.”

As I mature (I will be 60 this year!), my thoughts are obviously thinking about my future and what GOD’S Plan is for me.  Obviously, I don’t KNOW what is ahead for me, as telling the future hasn’t always been one of my strongest suits!  But really, when we WALK BY FAITH (2 Corinthians 5:7), knowing that we are being led by OUR CREATOR is all of the PEACE we need! 

The book of Haggai, chapter two so adeptly speaks to me when it says in verse five “MY SPIRIT remains in your midst. “FEAR NOT”.” No matter the valley in our future, ALMIGHTY GOD plainly tells us that HE will be in our midst, that HIS SPIRIT will lead us through our “wilderness”!  HE IS IN CONTROL, the same SPIRIT that has overcome death, hell, and the grave!  

“WORK, FOR I AM WITH YOU, declares the LORD of hosts” is what HE says in verse four!  Although HE might be leading us to a PROMISED LAND, we will have to WORK through some wilderness experiences getting to our PROMISED LAND, but “MY SPIRIT remains in your midst”!  How can we do anything but “FEAR NOT” when the CREATOR of the universes is leading us???

The future is something that even a chosen leader, such as Moses, couldn’t foresee.  GOD wants us to TRUST IN HIM and leave the “heavy lifting” to ONE WHO is able!  BE STRONG....WORK, FOR I AM WITH YOU.....”FEAR NOT” are words that need to be solidified in our hearts and lives as we live for HIM!