Haggai 2:5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you: fear you not. Some, more especially the older men of the nation, remembering the magnificence of the temple of Solomon, and contrasting with it the meanness of the present temple, were continually discouraging the builders; so the Lord sent His prophets again the second time to say, — "My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not." So we are often tempted to give up in despair, because our efforts seem so puny and so weak; hut God's message comes to us to-day with this encouragement, "My Spirit remaineth among you." 1. There are those who are continually putting off. They are busily engaged in their own pursuits, but are putting off the demands and claims of Almighty God. The text ought to speak to such some heart-searching and heart-breaking appeals. Is not the patience of the Spirit wonderful? To think that the Holy Spirit of God should still keep on waiting while we were saving to God," When I have a convenient season I will call for Thee. 2. There are men who profess to be Christian men. But they seem satisfied with being sure that they have escaped the damnation of hell. They are like the returned exiles who were satisfied with having an altar, and were not anxious about getting a temple. Yet God's Spirit is still waiting. Do not trust in any fancied security. 3. There are those who feel that unless they are found working for Christ they cannot reasonably hope that they have been saved by Christ. If God's Spirit is with us He reveals to us that we are in this world to do some good to our fellow-men. If we are despondent as we think how little we have done, the assurance of the text is encouraging, "My Spirit remaineth with Trusting in the patient, abiding, indwelling Spirit, may we be more and more respired, m spite of every temptation to despondency, to rise and build the temple of our God. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. |
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