4 But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, 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. 5 ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ Haggai 2:4-5.
I am not sure why I had a paralysis – analysis, but it was almost a year later and I still had not finished the final paper for a short Jan Term college class. The teacher had given me all the time necessary to finish the paper. The subject was not exceptionally difficult to grasp. I was just stuck. Finally (finally doesn’t have quite the emphasis necessary to capture the feelings I had for getting it done), I got to work, finished the typing and submitted the paper.
Zerubbabel and Joshua were tasked with rebuilding the temple with the people who had returned from exile. The task was overwhelming. A few remembered what the temple looked like before the destruction. Where would they get the materials? Would there be enough craftsmen to bring the temple back to its former glory? How should they deal with all of the complaining and discouraging words?
Let’s look at God’s answer to address overwhelming tasks.
- God tells us to be strong.
- What is understood is that we may feel weak, feeble, or unqualified for the task at hand
- God’s word of encouragement is that we have the capacity to be stronger than we feel at the moment.
- If God is speaking for us to be strong, believe that He will provide for strengthening to come.
- Lean on His words that you can be strong enough to tackle what is in front of you.
- Get to work
- Do what ever you can in this moment to start the process of addressing the task
- Make a list. Make a call. Move one object. Stop looking and begin touching something. Who could you enlist for help?
- You only have today to work with…what can you accomplish today? Go do it.
- God is with you
- Having the right and most important person on your team creates an inner boldness to move forward
- God told Zerubbabel that He was with them and His Spirit remains upon them.
- Even at this moment, God remains on His children because He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you.
- Do not fear
- God’s final statement reminds them not to give way to all fears of the “what if’s” that could go wrong. Could something go wrong? Absolutely! But God will be on the scene and on time to address it.
- One thought not in the text – set a date for accomplishment
- For my paper, the deadline came when the professor was going to change my Incomplete grade to a Fail. That deadline moved me to action.
- Deadlines help you structure all of the activities needed to see the task accomplished.
Don’t tackle all the jobs at once. Ask God to help you identify what your next step should be. Take that step. Now you are in the perfect place to take the next step. God led, you followed. That is the best position to find yourself addressing the overwhelming task…follow God’s lead and GET TO WORK.
Blessings Love y’all