Devotions

God blesses those who walk in faithfulness, and he shows favor to those who favor him. How do people lose the blessing and favor of God? The prophet Haggai speaks to this, and the first reason he lists is that self-interests begin to replace God’s interests.

Haggai recounts that the Israelites gave up building the Lord’s house to build their own homes. This was sixty-eight years after Solomon’s temple was destroyed. A remnant had returned to Jerusalem out of Babylonian captivity specifically to rebuild the temple. Indeed, they laid the foundation with zeal and excitement.

At that point, they ran into some difficulties and discouragements. Slowly, they lost interest in the work of God, saying, “This just isn’t the time. We are having too many problems. Besides, we’re spending so much time here that we’re neglecting our families and businesses.” They said, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built” (Haggai 1:2, NKJV).

One by one they walked away. God’s interests, which were for with their own well-being, became secondary. They began building their own houses, and they used the lumber that had been stored up for building the temple.

How do believers today lose the blessing and favor of God? We lose it when we stop praying and seeking God and stop building up his spiritual body, his “temple.”

Haggai recounts that when the people put God’s interests first, he took care of them in every way. Their vineyards grew; their grapes were heavy; they slept peacefully at night, and their children danced in the streets. None of their enemies prevailed against them. It was a marvelous time of God’s blessing. The blessings stopped when the people became absorbed in themselves.

This is what is happening today. Our world is consumed with pride, personal ambition and self-will. No wonder so many are drunk and dazed with drugs, wandering in darkness and confusion.

God’s response to Israel’s neglect was “I called for a drought on the land . . . and on all the labor of your hands” (Haggai 1:11). He was saying, “If you begin to neglect your souls and turn to material things, you will end up joyless, dissatisfied, empty and dry. I want you to put my interests first so I can again bless and favor you.”

How it must break the Lord’s heart when we question his ability and desire to care for us. The Bible tells us how the Lord took meticulous care of Ruth. She pledged her love to Jehovah God and told Naomi, her mother-in-law, “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16, NKJV).

God loved Ruth and opened up every door for her. She was poor and had to gather wheat in the fields, but scripture says, “She happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz . . .” (Ruth 2:3). Now, there’s not a chance in the world that this just “happened.” It was God’s doing, and he knew what was best for Ruth.

Ruth simply loved and fully trusted the Lord; and he had a godly man prepared for her as a husband. Boaz saw Ruth in the fields and immediately discerned, “She’s different, really different.” His heart was captured, and Ruth and Boaz were married.

What a love story, guided by God’s own hand! If he would do that for Ruth, will he not do right by his own bride in every circumstance?

We have someone who is richer and mightier than Boaz. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He knows all and can do all, and he loves his bride. Yes, the Lord works everything in your life for your absolute best, and he takes great pleasure in doing so. Sadly, we often don’t rest in that. We doubt that he is on the job at all times, working out everything for our good.

Beloved, nothing breaks his heart more. Paul describes the bride of Christ as “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27). “Wrinkle” here means “fold,” as on one’s face, a wrinkled brow. This speaks of worry and fretting, and Paul is saying that Jesus’s bride will have no “worry lines” on her face.

The bride of Christ rests in his love. She is confident he knows where she is, how she feels, what she is going through, and what is best for her. His love brings her peace and calm. She knows he will not allow anything that will cut her off from him or hurt her. He is going to preserve her because he said, “You are mine!”

In her book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, American historian Doris Kearns Goodwin details Lincoln’s gift for bringing opposites together. She says Lincoln possessed an “array of personal qualities that enabled him to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings...to assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from mistakes.”

Lincoln’s Civil War cabinet was similar to groups of people everywhere: families, churches, boards, workplaces, juries, neighborhoods. They all contain a variety of people who have the same goal but want to get there in different ways. Of course, in Lincoln’s case, the stakes were higher than most — the fate of the Union hung in the balance — but the group dynamics were like any other. His brilliance lay in his resolve to respect his team, learn from them and honor the mission by using all of their talents.

Can you think of a time when you were determined to do a job in a certain way but had to work with someone who was equally set on doing it differently? I can; it’s happened more times than I can count. How did you find common ground? If you’re like me, there were times you struggled to find any value in others’ points of view.

Paul went through this too, and he addressed it often in his letters. In Philippians, he challenges us to know the goal but to learn how to let our differences become our collective strength.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:1-5, ESV).

Why “count others more significant?” Because it’s a spiritual connection that breaks down barriers and brings people together. It helps us think outside the box like Jesus did. When we bring the mind of Christ into all that we do, the job becomes easier, the load lighter and we might just learn something in the process.

When God first set before me an open door to lead a church, I said no. He spoke to me often about that open door, but I had my career with the Ottawa police. Giving that up would mean losing money, my government pension, my coworkers’ respect, and the security of all these things.

One day, I glanced out a window and saw three or four sparrows pecking away at the snow. God spoke again, “I care and provide for them. Do you not believe that I will care all the more for you?”

That decision to take over leading the church was still not easy. People thought I was crazy. My father said to me, “When there’s no food to feed your family and no milk in the fridge for your kids, don’t come to me. I won’t help you. What you’re doing is foolish.” That was a bitter pill to swallow. Two of my fellow Christian police officers were quite vocal about their opposition. They questioned my Christian responsibilities to my wife and three children. “You’re going to bring your family into hardship.”

One day, I walked out of the elevator and came face-to-face with an officer in uniform. I knew him just well enough to know he was not a believer. He reached out and hugged me. No one hugs in the French-Canadian Ontario-Quebec National Capital Region in public! He stepped back and looked at me through misty eyes and said, “I don’t agree with what you believe, but you’ve got guts, man. I respect that.”

As he got on the elevator and went his way, I stood there for a moment, realizing the first encouragement I had received to step out in faith came from a nonbeliever.

I was well aware that there appeared to be a cliff on the other side of my open door. I wasn’t blind. I knew that God would need to sustain me. I felt like Peter stepping out of the boat. There was nothing in the natural to support me. From the moment I stepped out of the boat, though, the journey God put before me was amazing to behold.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26, KNJV).

_{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}