In a Christina Parenting Magazine, Jill Brett, describes the difference between fantasy and reality when it comes to parenting preschoolers.
The Fantasy: As your little ones sit quietly at the kitchen table and hum along with Beethoven, they absorb their age-appropriate encyclopedias. Meanwhile, you recreate the map of the U.S. using homemade sugar cookies. Ahhh, you think to yourself. This is what life's all about.
The Reality: Your little darlings simultaneously shriek, "Mine!" as they rip the latest Bob the Builder coloring book in two. Between loads of laundry, you smell smoke. You rush to the kitchen to find the slice-and-bake cookies burning in the oven. Fed up, you stand at the counter and remember the days when you thought you'd actually spend your life doing something worthwhile, like being a brain surgeon by day, and lawyer for the poor by night (Jill Eggleton Brett, "Help! I'm Surrounded by Preschoolers," Christian Parenting Today, Summer 2004; www.PreachingToday.com).
Such is life, not only for the mother of preschoolers, but for all of us. So what do you do when fantasy crashes into reality? What do you do when life gets messy and your world falls apart?
That’s what happened to 50,000 Jews when they returned to their land from Babylonian captivity. After 70 years of suffering in a foreign country, they looked forward to going home, but their reality was far worse than their fantasy.
Kenneth Quick, an adjunct professor at Grace School of Theology, describes the situation: “They returned to a totally devastated country—think of New Orleans after Katrina, only let it remain untouched for an additional 70 years! What would happen to the street where you live if it were deserted for 70 years? What would you find when you returned? What would houses, yards, and farms look like? No economy, trade, or markets existed, no working farms for food, no infrastructure, no military or police, no government services, and no Temple. Just wreckage—piles and piles of it, overgrown with weeds, brush, and trees. The tasks were overwhelming, even with an army of motivated people” (Kenneth Quick, Preaching on Haggai, www.PreachingToday.com).
It is to these people that the prophet Haggai comes with a message from God. So, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to the Old Testament book of Haggai, just three books from the end of the Old Testament, the book of Haggai, where God speaks not only to those ancient Jews, but to anyone whose fantasy has crashed into reality.
Haggai 1:1-6 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes (ESV).
It’s August 29, 520 B.C., over 16 years after the exiles returned from Babylon and laid the foundation of the temple, but that’s all the further they got. They stopped work on the temple and worked on building their own homes. That’s when God sent Haggai to encourage the exiles to resume their work on the temple.
He urges them, “Consider your ways”—You have put your own houses above God’s house with the result that you lose more than you gain. Despite your hard work, you harvest meager crops, you never have enough to eat or drink, you’re cold all the time, and your money goes as fast as it comes. So, “get back to work on My house,” God says.
Haggai 1:7-11 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors” (ESV).
“Your hard work is useless, because you have neglected Me,” God says.
Solomon once said, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain… It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil…” (Psalm 127:1-2).
The exiles were uselessly working hard in their own strength on their own agendas. They neglected God’s agenda—the rebuilding of His temple. As a result, they were making little to no headway as they attempted to rebuild their broken world. However, they heeded God’s message and got right to work on His temple.
Haggai 1:12-15 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.” And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king (ESV).
After 16 years of inactivity, in just 23 days, God’s people got their priorities right and began to rebuild the temple. As a result, God assured them of His presence. “I am with you,” He said (vs.13), guaranteeing their success.
My dear friends, that’s what you need to do when your fantasy crashes into reality. Like those Jewish exiles from Babylon…
PUT YOUR PRIORITIES IN ORDER.
Put God first in your life and so deal with the disorder. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), and He will take care of everything you need. He will be with you, bringing order to your world, as you do His work, not your own.
R. C. Sproul said, “A fanatic is a person who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his effort to get there. The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere. He is a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a golfer without a green” (R. C. Sproul, “Pleasing God,” Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 9; www.PreachingToday.com).
The Jewish exiles from Babylon had returned home to rebuild God’s temple, but they lost sight of that goal. So, in an effort to rebuild their lives, they ran around frantically getting nowhere. Please, in your own life, don’t you do the same. Keep sight of the goal of pursuing God and His will for your life.
Kelly Williams faced a hard question when he was launching a new church start in Colorado Springs, Colorado. During the initial stages, the attendance fluctuated, but never exceeded a handful. One night, nobody showed up, and Kelly faced the fact that he might not be cut out for church planting, that he could fail. As he flirted with quitting, he opened his Bible to John 10 and read Jesus' words about the good shepherd that lays down his life for his sheep:
As he read, Kelly heard God's voice. “I know you are willing to be a success for me, but are you willing to be a failure for me? Are you willing to lay down your life for these sheep?”
His open Bible opened his heart. “Yes, Lord, yes!” Williams prayed. “I'll lay down my life for these sheep. If it is your will, this is the hill I'll die on, I'll fight to the bitter end.”
Those who are willing to be a success for God are legion. Those who are desperate for God and want him even if it means being a failure are the blessed few. Kelly went on to establish a flourishing church, but the point is he was willing to follow God's will for his life wherever it took him. Are you desperate for God? Not desperate for God's blessings, but desperate for him? (Jim Wilson, Future Church, Serendipity House, 2002, p. 155; www. PreachingToday.com).
If your fantasy has crashed into reality, that’s a good question to ask yourself—are you desperate for God? Have you lost sight of the goal of knowing and serving Him no matter what?
When your world falls apart, the first thing you need to do is put your priorities in order. Put God first in your life and so deal with the disorder. Then…
PUT YOUR PAST BEHIND and so deal with your disappointment.
Forget the so-called “good-old-days,” and look forward to the future God has planned for you. That was God’s word to His people in Haggai’s second message, delivered on October 17, 520 B.C., about two months after his first. Take a look.
Haggai 2:1-9 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts’” (ESV).
Those who remembered the glory of the Solomon’s temple wept when they saw the plainness of the rebuilt temple (Ezra 3:12). But God tells them, “Don’t look back. Look forward to the glory and peace that I will bring, which will far outshine any former glory.”
The New Testament tells us that “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” when Jesus comes again to rule and reign on this earth from David’s throne in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:29-30). So Haggai sees the glory of Christ’s millennial reign yet future, a glory which will far outshine any previous glory.
So don’t pine over the so-called “good-old-days.” Instead, anticipate the great days yet to come.
In March, 1942, a nurse on Bataan received a package mailed before the world-changing surprise attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Opening it, with other nurses looking on, she removed a sheet of tissue paper and lifted a “little, frivolous black hat, with a dainty veil.”
All broke into a laughter perilously close to tears. The nurse, in her army coveralls and bigger-than-her-feet shoes, held it in her hands, noting its cuteness. They watched silently as she set it on her head and carefully adjusted it—then broke again in laughter mixed with tears.
The hat symbolized what they all had lost, and many of them wouldn't find again during World War II: cars on paved streets; dinners in restaurants with choices on the menu, theaters showing films, and ball games.
The little hat became a popular tourist attraction to other nurses from other bases. Everyone looked, most wistfully, many with tears brimming or falling, as memories surged and emotions spilled (Juanita Redmond, I Served on Bataan, Lippincott Company, 1943, pp. 90-91; www.PreachingToday.com).
With their world falling apart, they were remembering “the good-old-days.” But for the believer, the best days are yet ahead! So, when your world falls apart, don’t look back; look forward to the glorious future God has planned for you.
When fantasy crashes into reality, 1st, Put your priorities in order and so deal with the disorder; 2nd, Put your past behind and so deal with the disappointment. And 3rd…
PUT YOUR SIN AWAY and so deal with your disobedience.
Turn from your sin and start obeying the Lord. Do what He wants, and God will give you what you need. That was God’s word to His people in Haggai’s third message, delivered on December 18, 520 B.C., about two months after his last message. Take a look.
Haggai 2:10-13 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ ” The priests answered and said, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean” (ESV).
Holy meat does not make common food holy, but unclean people cause everything they touch to be unclean. In the same way, the disobedient exiles soiled all their efforts at restoration.
Haggai 2:14-17 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD (ESV).
When they were disobedient, when they neglected God’s house to build their own houses, all their efforts were in vain; they couldn’t provide for their families. But now, since they are doing God’s will, God promises to provide all their needs from this day forward,
Haggai 2:18-19 Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you” (ESV).
I will fill your barns and put fruit on your trees, so you will have plenty to eat instead of going hungry all the time.
1st, God promised His presence (Haggai 1:13). 2nd, God promised His peace (Haggai 2:2). Now, God promises His provision (Haggai 2:19). You see, when you put God’s priorities before your own, then God makes it His priority to provide your needs.
In the New Testament, when the Philippian believers sacrificially gave to build churches under Paul’s ministry, Paul encouraged them with a promise—“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). This is not a promise for every believer. This is a promise for every giver, who puts God’s agenda above his or her own.
So, stop doing your own thing, and do His thing. Turn from your sin and start obeying the Lord. Do what He wants, and God will give you what you need.
In 1880, a Christian couple, George and Sarah Clarke, purchased the lease for the Pacific Beer Garden.
Promptly dropping the word Beer, the couple added the word Mission, and launched a ministry to homeless alcoholics and downtrodden men and women. Thus, was born the Pacific Garden Mission of Chicago—the Old Lighthouse—the second oldest rescue mission in the United States.
Colonel and Mrs. Clarke bore the cost of the mission themselves, but as expenses grew and the ministry expanded, their funds ran low. Eventually the day came when they could not pay the rent. Attempts to secure the needed funds failed, and Colonel Clarke was told he had only 24 hours to make the payment. Otherwise, he would lose his lease, and the Pacific Garden Mission would close.
Throughout the night, Colonel and Mrs. Clarke prayed, asking God to guide and to provide in his own way and time. They prayed all night, and when they emerged from their Morgan Park house that morning, they gasped. What had happened to their front yard? It was covered with something white, something that instantly reminded them of the manna of the Old Testament. Looking closer, they discovered their lawn was filled with mushrooms of the very best quality, which was quite mysterious because it wasn't the season for mushrooms.
Gathering the crop, the Clarkes carted the mushrooms down the street and sold them to the chefs at the Palmer House, the famed hotel just off of Michigan Avenue, for a large price. The receipts were enough to pay the rent, with enough left over to meet other ministry expenses (Sandi Patty and Larnelle Harris, I've Just Seen Jesus, J. Countryman Books, pp. 4-5; www.PreachingToday.com).
George and Sarah Clarke committed their lives to doing God’s will, putting His agenda above their own. As a result, God provided everything they needed to fulfill His calling on their lives.
You do the same! When fantasy crashes into reality, 1st, Put your priorities in order and so deal with the disorder. 2nd, Put your past behind and so deal with the disappointment. 3rd, Put your sin away and so deal with the disobedience. And finally…
PUT YOUR SITES ON THE LORD and so deal with the discouragement.
Stop looking around and start looking up. Tale your eyes off your situation and put them on your Sovereign. That was God’s word to Zerubbabel, the leader of God’s people, in Haggai’s fourth message, delivered on the same day as his last message. Take a look.
Haggai 2:20-23 The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts” (ESV).
Warren Wiersbe says, “No doubt Zerubbabel needed special encouragement as he directed the work of the Lord… Perhaps Zerubbabel saw the great empires around him and feared for the future of the tiny remnant of Jews. Circumstances have a way of discouraging us as we seek to build the work of the Lord. But God encouraged the governor’s faith… “I will shake the heavens and the earth,” God said. “Don’t be afraid of these kingdoms. I will overthrow them and destroy them. As for you, Zerubbabel, you are as a signet, a very precious jewel, to Me. I have chosen you—don’t give up” (Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the Old Testament).
Now, that’s God’s message to you, as well. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, God highly favors you!
It reminds me of what the angel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary: “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). The angel called Mary, “O favored one.” Now, that word in the original Greek is used only one other time in the New Testament; but there, it is used of every believer. Ephesians 1 says, “God chose us… to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4, 6). Literally, He has favored us just like He favored Mary and just like He favored Zerubbabel.
So don’t give up on the work God has called you to do. Get your eyes off your circumstances and put them on the Lord, who has chosen and favored you.
Curtis Buthe, from Portland, Oregon, describes the beginning of Soccer season, when his tiny, 35-pound, 5-year-old daughter would be playing Micro-League for the Bombers. As they walked to the first practice on a cool summer day, Curtis was anxious to see who the coach would be. Would his focus be on making the game fun and a team experience, or would he focus on goals and winning? As practice began, he met the coach, Ray. His first impression was that Ray was a good man. Any lingering doubt about him vanished when an odd incident occurred during a practice game: the white shirts versus the blue shirts.
As they began, an olive-skinned little boy, who spoke no English, wandered from the playground equipment over to the sidelines of the game. He watched. He waited. Moments later, Curtis looked for him again, but he was gone. Then he noticed there were now thirteen Bombers running up and down the field. The boy, perfectly camouflaged in blue shorts and a white t-shirt, had joined the white team. He ran, he passed, he kicked. He smiled.
No one seemed to notice that he wasn't a part of the team. No one yet said, “He hasn't paid the fees! The proper forms and releases have not been signed!” Soon, however, a ball rolled into a mother's lap, and as the new boy ran to fetch it, the mom innocently said to the coach, “He's not on the team.” The kids, who had not even noticed that a new friend was on the field, stopped. The coach looked down at the now very dirty boy, saying, “He's not? Hmm.”
There was a pause as the boy looked up at Ray, who held his soccer fate, at least this day. Finally, Ray made his judgment. He put his hand on the boy's small back and said, “Come on! Let's play soccer!” And off all thirteen Bombers ran back on the field (Curtis Buthe, Portland, Oregon; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s the state of every believer. None of us deserve to be on God’s team. We haven’t earned it, nor have we paid the fee—Christ did! But God, in His grace, chose us to be on His team, the best team in the universe.
Dear discouraged believer, please, believe that when you feel like quitting. Believe that God has chosen you for His team and He highly favors you—you are His star! His signet ring.
When fantasy crashes into reality, put your priorities in order and so deal with the disorder. Put the past behind and so deal with the disappointment. Put your sins away and so deal with the disobedience. And put your sites on the Lord and so deal with the discouragement.
O soul, are you weary and troubled,
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Savior
And life more abundant and free.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace (Helen Howarth Lemmel).
