Assembly Required…
Haggai 1:7-9 (Amplified Bible)
7Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared.
8Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it].
9You looked for much [harvest], and behold, it came to little; and even when you brought that home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of My house, which lies waste while you yourselves run each man to his own house [eager to build and adorn it].
My favorite time of year has always been Christmas. I love to give and to see the faces of those receiving. I love the warmth of remembering that this season is a commemoration of Jesus’ birth and the beginning of what we now know as redemptions story. Although I adore Christmas and all that it represents and brings, when my children were younger and their list of gifts consisted of toys, I would almost dread my trips to the store as this glorious holiday approached. For during this season in my life so many of their toys would read, every parent’s nightmare, “Assembly Required.” In many cases that was an understatement, with it’s minuscule pieces and various nuts and bolts, many a Christmas Eve I would find myself stretched out on the living room floor trying to get some toy put together for the children’s sake. In most cases that assembly came with directions and a sequence to follow. If I followed the directions in most cases the task would go smoothly, if it lacked clarity or the directions were vague, it would ultimately be a very long night.
Isn’t it funny that we think that the minute we accept Christ we believe that we possess all sufficiency and that we are now put together, and do not require any assembly or structuring in any way. We need to understand that we are a work in progress; we are a home that requires God’s assembly, to His standards. So many times we want to build ourselves to our own specifications, standards and dimensions, lacking God’s wisdom and knowledge. We neglect reading our bible and consulting God, we just go about the process of assembling our selves by looking at sister so and so, or deacon, what not, but we never consult the instructions or the designer to find out if we are getting it right. Then we wonder why we are all in ruins and unhappy about our progress and our results. We find our marriages in turmoil, our relationships in ruin, and our finances upside down and children steeped in rebellion, all because we did not allow God to put us together, to guide the process and make us what He intended. Instead we want to buy the house, the car, become the praise leader and the ministry head, but we want to do all of it minus God’s hand and direction.
It is time to be taken apart, reassembles and assembled according to God’s directions and specifications. It is time to delve into the Word of God and find out how He wants His home in you to be built, His family structured and His gifts utilized. It is time to go to the architect, the creator and spend time with Him so that He can organize your assemble and get you put together for His service the right way, without flaw, or misalignment. Let God take over your production process and see what a difference the assembler makes.
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