Do We Have it Backwards?

This post is by Kelli LaFram.

When it comes to your time with Jesus, have you ever felt sluggish, dry, unmotivated? Like, despite your desire to have a full and rich morning with Jesus, your best friend and Savior, you just don’t have the willpower to make it happen? Then you feel guilty because you are neglecting Him. You feel despair at your lack of fulfillment in Him. Right? Well, consider your ways.

“You have sown much, and bring in little;

You eat, but do not have enough;

You drink, but you are not filled with drink;

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;

And he who earns wages;

Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!” (Haggai 1:6-7)

When Haggai prophesied these words, many Israelites had returned to Jerusalem after the fall of Babylon. However, their return did not lead to fullness of life. Haggai tells them it was because they had neglected the rebuilding of the Temple, their place of worship.

While our context is vastly different from that of ancient Israel, we can still apply the principles of this passage to our lives today. Initially, Israel did not worship because they had no place to worship. Sometimes we neglect worship because we don’t feel we don’t have the hearts to worship. But we have things backwards.

For the Israelites, worship began as soon as they began to rebuild the temple. In their obedience they drew near to the Lord and He responded, “I am with you” and He “stirred up the spirit” of the people and “they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God” (Haggai 1:13-14).

Under the New Covenant, the promise that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:8), we are God’s temple and He dwells in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). Because He is with us, we can worship even when we do not feel like we can. 

Let’s consider our ways. Our feelings and desires do not have to be in perfect order before we draw near to our Lord. Our way of thinking is often that we must feel energized, excited, and motivated in order to show up for our time with Jesus. The opposite is true. It is our time with Jesus that fills us up. It is Him, always Him, that gives our dry and weary souls what we need.

This is why it is so crucial to build our God Time, Move Time, Plan Time routines. When we are feeling sluggish, dry, and unmotivated to meet with Jesus, we can rely on our habits instead of our will power to commune with Jesus. Our habits will help us push past our feelings and into obedient faith that He is with us and patiently, lovingly waiting for us to draw near.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace... (Hebrews 4:16a)

Kelli LaFram is actually Kelli LaFramboise, but no one can pronounce that, so with the permission of her family she writes under the shorter pen name. Her neighbors have started referring to her bunch as the LaFram Fam. In addition to writing for Hello Mornings, Kelli leads a Bible study in her home and serves in the children’s ministry at her local church. Kelli is an elementary school teacher and her hobbies include blogging about God’s word, listening to audiobooks with her children, drinking good coffee, and hand painting faith-based signs (but not after too much coffee). You can find her at www.quietlyreminded.com and https://www.instagram.com/kellilafram/.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash