“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruin?” Haggai 1:4

Recently, we moved into a new home, and this is an exciting time because it was an incredible provision which the Lord had given to us in our time of need.  And yet even in the midst of teaching a new series I have written called “12 Women/12 Weeks/12 Destines” to 12 incredible women with the intention of inspiring them to their greatness and to not use excuses,obstacles or distractions to keep them from the things that God would have them to do, I found myself in that exact situation! Not only being distracted by the move itself and my emotions and needing to deal with my feelings, my hurts and my disappointments from that move, but also just dealing with the chaos of organizing a house and getting things in order.  I found myself putting aside the tasks that I knew the Lord had me to do.   These were tasks that only I can accomplish.  They were given to me.  God created me in the image of Himself before time even began to do these important works.  I found myself relating to the Jews as they came out of exile and were restoring Jerusalem.  They had been instructed by the prophet Haggai and event the prophet Zechariah of the importance of needing to rebuild the temple of God first as they restored Jerusalem, but they spent 18 years rebuilding their own homes and ignoring God’s house.  Their intentions were good.  They had the right frame of mind; the right mindset to do the things of God and for God, but they spent 18 years putting off their obedience to Him in order to make their own lives comfortable.

Can you feel the conviction? As I was studying the book of Haggai, the conviction of the Lord just fell on me.  You see, the disobedience of the Israelites brought them nothing but trouble.  They experienced crop failure, drought and all kinds of challenges and discomfort simply because they procrastinated!  Haggai knew that the people were struggling, and he knew this struggle was because the people had not promptly obeyed God.  They had put their own desire for comfort and having nice houses ahead of their desire to complete the task which God Himself had assigned them to do.

This brought such great conviction upon me today because in my own desire to do what I think would please God and that is to have my home in order and everything in just the right place (and yes, order is important to God and having order in my home is good for my family, but not if it gets in the way or keeps me from accomplishing that which I was put here to do), I failed to do what I ultimately knew He wanted me to be doing.  I am still feeding my kids in the midst of the chaos.  My home is clean even in the disorder and piles of boxes.  My children are being nourished and nurtured as is my husband.  But when I focus so much on getting the details around me perfect just so I can live out the plans that God has for me, I am putting aside all that He has for me just waiting for that perfect moment and in that I am being distracted by the cares of the world and disobedient to my Father.  The world will always have cares and things will always be changing, but we need to learn to adjust to the differences and the cares and the changes all around us, and we need to be able to do that without losing our focus on what He has us here to do.

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, keep your eyes focused on that which you were called here to do so that you will glorify your father in Heaven, and you  will accomplish great things, not in your own power and strength, but in His.

Get your eyes back on what He put your here to accomplish and do it today.  Your destiny is waiting!