Devotions this week based on The Prophets Week 10 – Haggai (WATCH HERE)
“‘From this day on I will bless you.’” — Haggai 2:19
Certain days change all the future ones.
Wedding days change the future for a new husband and wife as they mark the transition from being single to being a couple.
Graduation days mark the end of a period of education and a new season of life.
Sometimes hardship marks a stamp on our life that creates a divide between life before the tragedy and life after.
The people of Israel in Haggai’s day were busy rebuilding after returning from Babylon. The problem was they were only focused on rebuilding their houses. They planted, but the crops were not that great. They worked hard, but the money they earned didn’t buy much. They went to pick fruit, but the trees weren’t bearing abundantly.
God brings this to their attention. “Give careful thought to your ways,” he said in Haggai chapter 1 (see Monday’s devotion). What they were doing was keeping them busy, but completely distracted from the “God-first” priority the Lord wanted them to have.
Until now.
God’s message was gracious yet searching: “Consider from this day onward… I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew, and hail, yet you did not return to Me” (vv. 17–18). He reminded them that discipline had a purpose — to bring them back to wholehearted dependence.
When they repented and rededicated themselves, God’s tone changed: “From this day on I will bless you.” Obedience to the Lord opened the door for renewal.
God wanted them to note the day their hearts shifted from serving self, to serving their Savior by getting to work on rebuilding the temple.
Their work would be blessed. Their crops would produce. The glory of the Lord would again predominate the temple and their homes.
God loves to reorient our heart. Perhaps it’s like a farmer who once discovered that his livestock were getting sick because a small spring feeding their water trough was polluted upstream. Cleaning the trough didn’t help; he had to go to the source and clear out the contamination.
In the same way, God wants to purify our hearts — the “source” — before blessing the work of our hands. The work of the Spirit is certainly a work that changes the course of our life because he changes the compass of our hearts. He did it for Israel and he does it for us.
God delights to bless those who trust Him fully.
Apply: It’s easy to serve God outwardly but be far from Him inwardly. Ask: Am I serving from a pure heart or for self-promotion? Is there any sin or bitterness I need to confess so God’s blessing can flow freely again?
Prayer: Lord, search my heart and remove whatever defiles it. Cleanse me from hidden sins, selfish motives, and distractions. From this day forward, bless the work of my hands as I walk in holiness before You. Amen.