Sacrificing our will

Thus sayith the Lord of Hosts “My house before thy house.”

We as servants of the Lord must learn to put the Lord’s work before ours. It is a struggle to deny our fleshly desires but we must realize that the Lord’s work is of the utmost importance. This takes a daily commitment to surrender our will so His will can be done on earth as it is in heaven. The best example of this principle can be found in the book of Haggai. Here we find the children of Jerusalem desperately tying to rebuild the city after an attack. At first the elders thought it would be wise to start with the building of the residential houses but after the profit Haggai spoke to them they changed their tune. He spoke to the children of God saying “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.”

Once the people of the Lord realized that He was still in control (of their flocks, fields, herds, and everything else) they came to the conclusion that any action that is not blessed by the Lord is pointless. So they trusted in Him to work on their house while they worked on His and behold the Lord blessed them. Then the Lord gave charge to Haggai to say unto King Zerub'babel and his people “I am with you, saith the LORD.” Then the Lord restored the harvest and strengthened His people’s hand so that they were able the build the Lords temple quickly. Now could God have brought about His plan without His children obeying certainly? However it is the Lords heart to see the first fruits of our love through our sacrifices. It was a great sacrifice for the children of Jerusalem to live without a house for a while but our God measures our love for Him on the amount of our sacrifices. When we face times of sacrifice we must not forget the Father sacrificing his one and only son and Christ ultimate sacrifice on the cross for our sin. Jesus said “There is no greater love than this, a man who lays down his life for a friend.” So since He died for us let us live for Him by sacrificing our will so His eternal work might be displayed through our lives.


Received By: Britney Mann