{"id":7775,"date":"2021-09-04T06:37:26","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T11:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7775"},"modified":"2021-08-23T14:12:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T19:12:51","slug":"devotional-on-haggai-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-haggai-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Haggai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_15539\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15539\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51-1024x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"542\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15539\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51-1024x578.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51-768x433.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51-1536x866.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2013-10-11-10.51.51.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15539\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2013 &#8211; Tombigbee State Park, Tupelo, MS<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nListening and honoring<br \/>\nHaggai 1: In listening to Haggai, they honored God.<br \/>\nThe drought has everyone worried.  If rain doesn\u2019t come soon the resulting famine will bring misery and death.  Not only that, but there\u2019s a general dissatisfaction among the returned exiles.  Even when they do things that ought to satisfy they\u2019re left feeling empty.  Then Haggai brings his sermon.  He says that the reason for no rain is that God&#8217;s getting their attention.  They\u2019re living self-centered lives and have failed to honor him by rebuilding the Temple.  He also says that the reason for their general dissatisfaction is that they\u2019ve been looking for satisfaction in the wrong things.  Only the Lord can satisfy their lives and they can experience him only by putting him first.  At this point the people stand where their ancestors stood many times through the years.  Will they listen to the message from God or will they harden their hearts and become more entrenched than ever in their refusal to honor him?  Their answer is a resounding decision to obey the voice of the Lord.  Where their ancestors failed they succeed.  This watershed moment is rewarded with a further message from the Lord who declares, \u201cI am with you!\u201d  I love what happens here.  As I\u2019ve read through the Prophets I\u2019ve encountered one instance of rebellion after another.  How refreshing it is to hear God\u2019s prophet declare God\u2019s message to God\u2019s people and see them listen and obey.  It\u2019s almost as though the sun breaks through the clouds to shine down on the words I\u2019m reading.  The people of Haggai\u2019s day messed up, but when God got their attention and declared his intentions they responded in humble obedience.  Personally, I\u2019d rather not mess up in the first place but when I do, I want their \u201clistening and honoring\u201d to be my inspiration.<br \/>\nTake Away: Better to do it the Lord\u2019s way all along, but if not, it\u2019s good to at least humbly accept his correction and move forward from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listening and honoring Haggai 1: In listening to Haggai, they honored God. The drought has everyone worried. If rain doesn\u2019t come soon the resulting famine will bring misery and death. Not only that, but there\u2019s a general dissatisfaction among the returned exiles. Even when they do things that ought to satisfy they\u2019re left feeling empty. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1499,6,7],"tags":[129,772,888,948],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15540,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7775\/revisions\/15540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}