Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
FRIDAY, December 9
Haggai 1:1-15. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord.
God spoke through Haggai in around 520 bce. The rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem had been neglected while the people, lulled into complacency in prosperous times, instead built comfortable dwellings for themselves. With a nudge from God through Haggai, they got back to work and completed the temple.
The Old Testament is the narrative of the journey of God’s people from the creation of the world to the coming of the Messiah. But it is, at the same time, the narrative of each of us, from our own creation to the coming of our Messiah. Isaiah has exhorted us to prepare the way, and now Haggai reminds us to build the house. Maybe the temple within me is not in complete ruins, but it is in predictable disrepair. I, too, have been distracted by my own prosperity, busy building monuments to my consumer-driven world. It’s now time to let go of that, go into the hills of the spirit, and find the sturdy wood. Then I can build the house within myself that will honor and please my Lord.
PRAY for the Diocese of Western New York (Province II, USA)
Ps 31 * 35; Revelation 2:18-29; Matthew 23:27-39
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