scriptures on healing a broken heart

[steve myers] the other day, we were talkingat ambassador bible college about a section of the scripture in the old testament thatwas critical. in fact, i had the wonderful opportunity to teach the former prophets,which is joshua, judges, 1 and 2 samuel, 1 and 2 kings. i kind of threw the chroniclesin there as well. and as we were going through the kings, we started to zero in on what wemight consider one of the greatest triumphs, one of the biggest blessings during the timeof the kings. and as we were discussing this, lots of differentideas came up, and then the class seemed to come to a consensus that maybe one of thegreatest blessings of that time, of that era, was the temple and the dedication of the temple.it was such a monumental experience when solomon

stood up and asked god to bless the temple,and that his very presence would be right there. so in i kings 8, he petitions god, and there'sthis long prayer about a real triumph of god's people at that time, when god would fill thattemple with his presence, and what an awesome time it was. now, of course, at the same time,it also involved one of the greatest disappointments because if you think about one of the mostdevastating events, maybe the greatest heartbreak of that old testament period also involvedthe temple because it didn't seem like it was that much later that that temple was destroyed.nebuchadnezzar's armies came in and wiped out that temple and devastated god's people.and so on one hand, you have a great triumph,

and yet on the other hand, just a heartbreakingsituation. now as we talked about that, it was reallyinteresting to see how much that seemed to coincide with our personal lives because oftentimeswe have a heartbreak in our life, and it seems like the walls have been tipped over, thestones have been overturned, and we're just left so devastated and disappointed. oftentimes,by many different kinds of things. maybe it's a loss of a job. maybe it's a health situation.maybe it's a death in the family, and you might think about the situations that youpersonally have been through perhaps over the last year. i think maybe all of us couldthink of heartbreaks that have happened. and what was interesting in that particularstory is god didn't want it to stay that way.

after the temple had been destroyed, his peoplecarted off into babylon, god brought them back. he didn't want them to remain a heartbrokenpeople. so how could you go from heartbreak to healing? how is that possible? god didn'tintend the people to remain heartbroken and in a tragic situation. and when you get tothe section of scripture that describes what god wanted to do to help healing to take place,something interesting happened. we can find out about this over in the book of haggai,if you'd like to turn there, haggai is one of the minor prophets. and right at the verybeginning of this book, the prophet haggai records i think something significant forus that it seems in our human state, when we are disappointed, when we are heartbroken,oftentimes we might find ourselves in the

same position that god's people were in asthey began to return out of babylon. and, of course, as god brought them back, you wouldthink this was the ultimate solution. finally, healing can begin, and it was supposedto, and yet here we are at the beginning of haggai, 16 years after the people had begunto return to jerusalem. they were commissioned to rebuild that temple that had been brokendown. and yet here we are 16 years later, and what was the state of that building process?well, if we notice what it says, verse 2, it says, "thus speaks the lord of hosts saying,'this people says the time has not come, the time that the lord's house should be built.'" here 16 years after the process was supposedto be started, there was still a healing that

needed to take place. there was still thewalls of the temple that needed to be built, and so god says to the people in verse 4,"is it time for you, yourselves, to dwell in your paneled houses and this temple tolie in ruins?" it was time to grow spiritually speaking. it was time to build that temple.so god instructs them. sixteen years is a long time of feeling devastated, of feelinglike this job can't be accomplished. of feeling like things have been so brokendown, how in the world can we be back where we need to be, and because of the people'sfocus, the temple was still in ruins. the people themselves lost their focus. they had,well, you might say, they were weakened. they had been deteriorated. they were atrophied,and it seemed that the heartbreak pushed them

that way. they had been overwhelmed by allowingthe challenges and the difficulties to take their focus away from them. so how were they to move forward? in a sense,especially how can we move forward after we've experienced those trials and difficulties,those tragedies, the heartbreaks? well, maybe sometimes we think, "boy, it'd be great ifwe didn't have to worry about those kinds of things. if we didn't have the difficulties,wouldn't it be great if god would just take away all of those troubles? and that i didn'thave to deal with the trials or the challenges of life." anyone ever felt that way? i knowi've felt that way. it'd be great if i didn't have to deal with this. but i got to thinkingabout that, and i was reading a little bit

of a history lesson that reminded me how impracticalthat really is. it sounds really good on the outside, butwhen you get down to it, it doesn't really work, and it came to me, as i was readingthe story about soviet cosmonauts. back in the '80s, they were trying to break all therecords for how long you could stay in space, and finally they did. there was a cosmonautthat was up in orbit for almost a year at that time, and that was a record. they gothim off after he came back to earth. he was in good health. everything could be great.he walked and showed just an amazing vitality to all the cameras after breaking those longevityrecords in space. now, that was the cool part. five years beforethat, a couple of cosmonauts broke the record.

they had been in space for over 200 days,but when they got them out of the space craft, they couldn't even get up. they couldn't walk.they were dizzy. they had heart palpitations. their hearts were in a fibrillation. theywere having all kinds of problems with blood pressure and pulse rates, and they couldn'teven walk for more than a week. i had to read a little bit more about it, and found outthat even after a month of physical therapy, they were still undergoing more tests, morephysical therapy in order to get those muscles that had become so weakened and so atrophiedback to where they needed to be. now the interesting part about this storywas how they got there to begin with. of course, they had been in space all that time, andhad been experiencing zero gravity, and in

zero gravity, when there's no resistance againstyour muscles, guess what begins to happen? they begin to weaken. they begin to atrophybecause there's no resistance, and that was the cause of all of the physical problemsthat those first cosmonauts were experiencing after being in space for so long. there wasno resistance. so the second group that were up there almosta year, they got off that vehicle in good health, and you know what the difference was?the difference between the 211 days and the 326 days in orbit was something called a penguinsuit. that sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? a penguin suit. what was a penguin suit? well,it was the soviet's response to those cosmonauts not being able to walk for all those days,for having to experience all that physical

therapy. they invented what they called apenguin suit. it was kind of like a running suit that waslaced with elastic rubber bands, for lack of a better term, and all these rubber bands,and they put this suit on, and it would cause resistance against their muscles. so theirarms would be resistant, so that they wouldn't atrophy. their legs, the same thing, so thatwhen they would force that resistance, the cosmonauts had to stay in shape. they hadto exert their strength, and evidently, after all that time, that resistance paid off, thatwhen they finally landed, the penguin suit was the solution. they weren't in bad health.they were able to get right back at things. in fact, they were flying planes a day orso after they had landed.

and so it just reminded me, we think oftentimes,"boy, if i didn't have any problems, if there was no resistance in my life, wouldn't thingsbe great? i could just kind of laze around and not have to worry about problems." andyet what would happen to our spiritual muscles if we didn't have any resistance, if we hadno problems, if we had no difficulties, if we didn't have any trials or challenges? ithink in a lot of ways god knows better. i think part of the lesson that i began to understandmaybe a little bit better was that strength grows by exertion. you find that? that strengthgrows by exertion, because in this life, tough times are going to come. there are going tobe challenges, and, of course, when those challenges come, sometimes we find ourselveslike the jews.

sometimes we find ourselves in this position.it's like, "well, how am i supposed to get beyond this? how am i supposed to heal? howcan i begin to grow and do the things god wants me to, especially when, like in theircase here in haggai, the devil is throwing all kinds of doubts in front of us?" he doesn'twant us to get back to being productive. he doesn't want us to spiritually grow, and sothose doubts are thrown our way it seems at every turn, because he wants to keep us likethose jews who came back to build the temple, wanted to keep them sidetracked. didn't wantthem to get back to the kind of vitality that god wanted them to have. but that's not god's intention. his is exactlythe opposite, that in spite of the troubles,

in spite of the challenges, even despite ofthe heartbreaks, god can turn that around and use it for our spiritual benefit. he tellsus a lot about that over in the book of james. if you turn with me over to james 1, familiarsection of scripture, certainly one that reminds us of the challenges in life and yet remindsus of god's perspective, what his ultimate intent is for us and how we can deal withthose difficulties and those challenges. well, if you noticed, james 1, we'll begin in verse2. you know this passage. he says, "my brethren count it all joy when you fall into varioustrials." i have to step back and go, "boy, i don'tcount the joy as i should. maybe i'm more like those first cosmonauts, and i'm so weak,and hurt, and i can't hardly walk, and it

doesn't seem like i'm ever going to get overthat." and yet god, in a sense, tells us he's got a spiritual penguin suit for us, thatby the exertion and the challenges that we face in life, it can actually produce strongspiritual muscles. that's what he tells us in verse 2. he says,"knowing the testing of your faith produces patience." so imagine strapping on this spiritualpenguin suit that god's got in mind for us, and when we do that, we don't get bogged downin the doubts and the discouragement. he says, "it can produce amazing spiritual fruit."in fact, here in verse 4, he says, "let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfectand complete, lacking nothing." so god's got in mind some amazing things,even though there are challenges and difficulties

in life. he says, "when we lack wisdom," hesays, "we can ask." we can begin exercising that side of the spiritual suit, and of course,when we ask, christ says if we ask, and we seek, and we knock, he says, we will find.and so here it tells us god is going to pour out with all liberality and without reproach,it will be given to him. so despite the heartaches, god has healing in mind. in fact, not justhealing, but growth in mind that even through those difficulties, god can work his purposefor amazing spiritual growth. so he says, "don't get caught looking down so much. beginto look up. pray and ask god for those things." so he says, "let him ask in faith." and ofcourse, we know that god's purpose is to give us the best things. we know every good andperfect gift comes down from the father of

life. he's got those good things in mind.and so he wants that temple, he wants our temple not to have broken down walls, notto be in disarray, not to be left in discouragement, but he wants it to be growing and built backup. and so he points this out so beautifully, and so god can work his purposes even amongthat. in fact, look at verse 6, he says, "let himask in faith with no doubting. he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossedby the wind." we know who's throwing the doubts. we know who wants to get us discouraged. that'snot of god. we know the adversary wants to trip us up, and so he says, "be confident."have our confidence in god's purposes. have our confidence in faith, in trust, and don'twaiver because we know god doesn't waver.

we know he's got exactly the best thing inmind for us, and even in spite of the fact, we can't see how this could work out for good.god says through his purposes, it can. and we've got an amazing god that can bringthose things about, and so he says, "my purpose will be served. have faith, have trust, havethat confidence in me, and it will be borne out." and so we can begin to put that trustand faith in god, and i ran across an amazing example. can you think of a disciple thathad firsthand experience when it came to this very sort of thing? the one i think of ispeter. talk about someone that went from heartbreak, the one who said he would never ever walkaway from christ. he would never turn his back on his savior, and yet he did that verything.

he said something interesting. i peter 5:10,notice what peter himself said, and as we read this, i wonder if he had some of hisown experience in his mind when he wrote this very thing. here in 1 peter 5:10, gives usthe big picture. look at the big picture when it comes to heartbreak, and trials, and difficulties.he says, "may the god of all grace, the god of all favor, the god who can work miraclesin our hearts, in our minds," he says, "may that god who called us to his eternal gloryby christ jesus," because he didn't call us to remain heartbroken. he didn't call us tofall short. he called us to be a part of his eternal family, and yet he knows what lifeis like. he knows his own experienced life. he says, "after you've suffered awhile, maythat god of all grace perfect you. may he

establish you. may he strengthen and settleyou." i believe peter could say that maybe perhapswhat he experienced in luke 22, if you'd like to turn over to luke 22 for just a moment.imagine where peter was at, at that very moment, in luke 22. we know the story, but look atthe devastation that peter himself suffered here in luke 22:54, luke 22:54. this is the same chapterwhere peter just got done saying, "i'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death,"and yet not long after that, we have peter following christ after his arrest. peter wasthere. someone recognized him. verse 56, they looked at peter and said, "this man was alsowith him." peter who was ready to go to death for christ said, "woman, i don't know him."

then again, he was recognized. "you're alsowith him," in verse 58, but peter said, "man, i am not." we know the story. verse 59, someoneelse said, "surely this fellow was with him. he's a galilean." verse 60, peter said, "man,i do not know what you're saying," and then immediately, that rooster crowed. when youtalk about heartbreaking events, verse 62 paints peter's heartbreak. peter went outand wept bitterly. he wept bitterly. how do you overcome that? how can you turn a lifearound after you've been such a hypocrite in ways that you were never going to giveup? you would never stand for the savior being taken. you would never deny him, and yet thisis where life found peter. thinking about peter's story and how to overcomea devastation like this actually reminded

me of a story i had heard about farmers inalabama. it doesn't seem to make much sense when you say it like that, but in alabama,at the turn of the century, farmers were accustomed to planting one crop year after year afteryear. you know what that crop was? it was cotton. every year they had seemed to plowas much land as they possibly could, and they'd plant cotton, and year after year, they thrived.cotton was king until the dreaded boll weevil came along. that boll weevil devastated everyyear that followed. in fact, that next year was so bad that farmers had to mortgage theirhomes. in fact, they mortgaged their homes, and you know what they did? they planted cotton.the boll weevil came back again and destroyed and wiped them out.

they weren't too many that survived thosefirst couple of years of the boll weevil, but the few that did, the few that did survivedecided, "this isn't working." after being devastated those two years, they decided webetter try something else. so they planted something they had never planted before. andyou know what that was? it was peanuts. peanuts. they planted peanuts. and you know what happenedto the peanuts? oh, the boll weevil couldn't affect the peanuts. the peanuts, they proved so hardy they didunbelievably well, and, of course, america wanted peanuts. they were ravenous for peanuts.they couldn't plant enough peanuts, and those that survived those first couple of years,that next year of the profits from peanuts

enabled them to pay off their debts and plantthose peanuts again the next year, and they thrived. it turns out this devastation from the bollweevil led to something even better. it led to growth. it led to greater stability. itled to greater prosperity. and so you know what those new peanut farmers did? they decidedthat in the town of enterprise, alabama, they would build a monument, a monument to theirsuccess. you know what they built the monument to? yeah, the boll weevil. you can go to enterprise,alabama today, and there's this lady with her arms over her head holding not a giantpeanut, holding a giant boll weevil, and the thing's like this big. it's huge. you cangoogle it, and you can see the statue at enterprise,

alabama. the farmers actually built a monument to theirheartbreak, to their trial, to the discouragement of this boll weevil because they felt if ithadn't been for the boll weevil, it hadn't been for the devastation, they never wouldhave discovered peanuts, and they never would have grown to the prosperity that they cameto have. and they learned by building that monument, even out of disaster, great thingscan come. the devastation led to growth, the heartbreak led to healing, the tragedy ledto rejoicing because those people around enterprise realized it wasn't a time to sit still. itwasn't a time to be idle. it wasn't a time to just stay in that discouraging state. theyrealized it was time to go forward. it was

time to find new ways to do things, new waysto press on. and in fact the same thing happened in peter'slife. at the crucifixion he was devastated, and yet not long after that, in fact, it hardlywas a couple of months, if you look over to acts 2, look at this same man, peter, in acts2:40, acts 2:40, tells the amazing story after receiving god's spirit here on the day ofpentecost, peter says some amazing things. critical things begin to happen, a whole differentperspective. he gives this amazing sermon. people respond to that sermon. people recognize where real growth can comefrom, even after being devastated by the death of the savior, through his resurrection, thereis life, there is hope, and so he says in

verse 40, "with many other words he testifiedand extorted them saying, 'be saved from this perverse generation.'" verse 41, "those whogladly received the word were baptized, and that day, about 3,000 souls were added tothem, and they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine, in fellowship, the breakingof bread, and in prayers." and you could read on through this sectionof the book of acts, the amazing growth that the church experienced right after devastatingevent. and i don't think it's there just to show us how awesome receiving the holy spiritwas. of course, that's an amazing lesson, but i think it's also a lesson for us to recognizethe fact that even in our lives, even after heartbreak, there can be healing, and therecan be growth after difficulties, and trials,

and disaster. i think god wants us to reallytake that to heart and recognize when god is backing us up, what is there to hold usback? we sing an amazing song oftentimes at services.it's a song that's titled "god is our refuge." remember that song? if you want a reminderof the lyrics, you can go back to psalm 46. psalm 46 is where those lyrics come from,"god is our refuge." we sing that god is our refuge and our strength, a very present aid.we sing that. if you look at that, a little bit different wording here in psalm 46, "godis our refuge and our strength." did peter begin to realize that? absolutely. when didit really strike him that he could put his trust and his faith and his hope there? itwas after the difficulties. it was after the

challenges and the trials. god is a very present help in trouble. wecan put our confidence in him. verse 2, it says, "therefore we will not fear. thougheven the earth be removed, if our legs are knocked out from under us, we have a greatgod that can even move spiritual mountains." he says, "though the mountains be carriedinto the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountainsshake, when our world is falling down around us, god is our refuge. god never would leaveus or forsake us. he is always there." these times of difficulties can bring us toa point to recognize that even more thoroughly in our lives, to recognize his presence inevery way. when you look at verse 7, he says,

"the nations raged, the kingdoms were moved.he uttered with his voice, the earth melted. the lord of host is with us. the god of jacobis our refuge." so what an amazing blessing this great god that we have can be in ourlives. that's where the healing can really begin. that's where the growth can reallybegin, when we put that trust, and that faith, and that confidence right where it needs tobe, right in our great god because through him, amazing growth can take. not only healing,but growth can result. in fact that's what it says here in psalm46 verse 10. it says, "be still, god says, and know that i am god. i'll be exalted amongthe nations. i'll be exalted in the earth." we exalt god by recovering. we exalt god bybeing healed, by allowing him to heal us and

work in our lives. we exalt god like thoseenterprise farmers did. out of disaster can be great growth. and so god can use thosechallenges to do that very thing, to give us a different perspective in the difficultiesthat we face. the book of hebrews talks about that. hebrews10:32, in hebrews 10:32 we're shown how these challenges that we face in our life can dothat very thing. it can change the way we look at life, and i think god wants to giveus that different perspective, doesn't he? so in the book of hebrews 10, it's describedin this section for us. look at verse 32. verse 32, "recall the former days which afteryou were illuminated, you endured great struggle with sufferings."

i know many have experienced those very things.sometimes not that long after understanding the truth. we might run into struggle justcoming to the truth. we've seen that certainly with those that begin to understand god'sway and his will. they strive to begin to maybe keep the sabbath. they're challengedon their jobs immediately, and the struggles and the difficulties that begin when we understandthe truth. maybe it's like these that are described here. there are great strugglesto endure, and yet it's interesting here in verse 33, he says, "partly while you weremade a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, partly while you became companions of thosewho were so treated, and we have empathy for each other. we recognize each other's difficultiesand challenges."

verse 34, it says, "you had compassion onme and my chains," most likely the apostle paul writing here, "and joyfully acceptedthe plundering of your goods knowing..." what can we take out of the challenges and thestruggles and the trials? he says, "...knowing that you have a better and enduring possessionfor yourselves in heaven." the christ is going to return to this earth, and from heaven he'sgoing to bring his kingdom to this earth, and we have an opportunity to be a part ofhis kingdom and his family forever. so he says verse 35, "therefore do not cast awayyour confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance so that after youhave done the will of god, you may receive the promise."

so in a way, he's telling us god can changeour perspective on life and on the difficulties. he can help us to realize these things arejust passing. these are fleeting things. these are things that we have to be brave. we haveto be confident. we have to have faith in god so that we can endure, and that we willgrow, and that we will see ourselves in god's hands, who will help us to endure and helpus to spiritually mature even more because that's his promise. and we can have faithin that very promise that god is with us, because it's not about that moment of difficulty.it's not about that time of struggle. it's what follows. what do we do now? what do we do next whenwe find ourselves in those challenges and

those difficulties? moving to cincinnati,i began to hear all the stories about the cincinnati reds. one that came to mind wheni was thinking of this particular topic was a story someone told me i had to look it upto see if it was really true, and it was. it was a story about the cincinnati reds.i'm not a big baseball fanatic or anything like that, but they're forcing me to be incincinnati. and, of course, with the reds being there, i heard a story about a gamethat took place all the way back in 1954, and as this person began to tell me that story,i thought, "do i really care about 1954 baseball? i don't really care. what about it?" well, they were excited about it, so theywere telling me about the cincinnati reds

and the milwaukee braves had a baseball gamein cincinnati, 1954. two rookies were in that very game, they told me. two rookies playedin that game in cincinnati. the reds won, of course, they had to tell me. it was nineto eight, and the star of the game was a man named jim greengrass. everybody heard of thefamous baseball player jim greengrass? maybe one or two. not necessarily a big name, butboy, did he have a big game that time. he had four doubles in his very first big leaguegame playing for the reds. that's pretty amazing. they were telling me, "that is sensational.what a debut for this rookie." now there was another rookie that played leftfield for the braves. he went zero for five that day. terrible. right? awful beginning.it was a terrible start for that rookie, whose

name was hank aaron. oh, everybody's heardof hank aaron. that's right. yeah, pretty amazing story when you think about it, andit's true. it's true. and reading a little bit about hank aaron, one of his sayings orone of his mottos was, "always keep swinging," and boy after starting as a rookie zero forfive, what if he would have given up? what if he would have said, "forget it. can'tdo this. i wasn't cut out for the big leagues"? especially with all the challenges he faced,he could have easily given up, but he didn't. he didn't, and i think it's a reds exampleof this whole concept when we're faced with the challenges, when we're going zero forfive, when we're down, we're depressed, we're discouraged, we're sick, we're hurt, whenlife's taken away from us, when we face those

kinds of challenges, really life changingevents, it really should point us to keep swinging, to be ready to follow god. and how many times is that the lesson throughoutthe bible? you can't turn to abraham without saying when life-changing events happen, turnto god. how about lot? how about jacob? how about moses? when life-changing events happen,be ready for action. be ready for growth. god is positioning you to grow and to stretch.when you're ready to cross the sea, it looks there's no way it's going to happen, but somehowthe seas are going to part. somehow that wall is going to collapse. somehowthe prison doors are going to fly open. somehow the gospel will be preached. it is undoubtable.when we read those stories, i think we have

to understand that for our lives, the samething is true. when life-changing events happen to us, be ready. god has growth in mind. hewants us to take this opportunity and this situation as an opportunity for growth. he'sgoing to open doors so that will happen. and so what an amazing thing because we're justlike this. the book of ephesians, or excuse me, philippians,reminds us of that. go over to philippians 3, because life situations bring us opportunitywhen god is first and foremost in our plan, when god is our guide. when we submit ourlives into his hands, he can work all those things for good. he doesn't want us to staythere. he wants us to keep swinging. philippians 3:8 is such a great reminder of these things,spoken by a man who lived it, spoken by a

man who went more than zero for five in someof his attempts. notice what the apostle paul said here inphilippians 3:8, "indeed i count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge ofchrist jesus my lord, for whom i've suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbishthat i might gain christ. to be found in him, not having my own righteousness from the law,but that, which is through faith in christ, the righteousness which is from god by faith."how many times did paul have to look to god and recognize god was moving him to grow,to continue on, to find new ways to preach and to teach and be that example of faith? verse 10 he says, "that i may know him thepower of his resurrection and the fellowship

of his sufferings and being conformed to hisdeath. if by any means i may attain to the resurrection of the dead, not that i've alreadyattained or am perfected, but i press on that i may lay hold of that, for which christ jesushas also laid hold of me. i press toward the goal for the prize of the upward of call ofgod, in christ jesus." that was paul's perspective in the challenges, and the trials, and thedifficulties of life. he recognized through those difficulties godwas positioning him for greater growth, for greater spiritual understanding. and he'sdoing the same for us. god is doing that very...he's not going to leave us down and out. he's notgoing to leave us on the wayside. he is there every step of the way working through ourlives so that we can be a representation of

god's way. we can be a living example of whatthe gospel is all about, that we can stand before him in a state that he is forgivingand we can move on and be positioned for growth. in fact, maybe we can finish the story ofthe temple before we get too far removed, before we conclude leaving them devastated.god didn't leave them that way. maybe if we go back to haggai for just a moment as weconclude. haggai 2 i think kind of tells that story about miraculous events happening andhow god's presence is such a phenomenal thing, and what god's intent for us really is. haggai2, if you get right before the book of zechariah after that gigantic book of zephaniah, youcan find haggai. haggai 2, here's what the new century versionsays at the beginning of verse 1. verse 1

chapter 2 of haggai, it says, "on the 21stday of the seventh month, the lord spoke his word through haggai the prophet." he said,verse 2, "speak to zerubbabel, the son of shealtiel, governor of judah to joshua, sonof jehozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people who are left alive, here'swhat you should say, 'do any of you remember how great the temple was before it was destroyed?what does it look like now? doesn't it seem like nothing to you?'" i think sometimes we can step back in ourlife and say, "you know, things used to be really good. it seemed like i had it madein my life, and now the bottom fell out." the temple was gone. it was destroyed. whatdid it look like then? it looked like a mess,

and i think when we're in that position, thisis what god is telling us. god says this very thing to us, not just about a physical templebut about our life itself. what does god have in mind when we're in those positions? verse 4, here's what the lord says, “‘zerubbabel,be brave. joshua, be brave. all you people who live in the land be courageous,' saysthe lord." why should we be? so he says, "work because i am with you,'" says the lord allpowerful, the lord almighty. we've got an almighty god on our side, and we will comeout of the rubble. we can build a great spiritual building with the help of our almighty god.verse 5, he says, "i made a promise to you when you came out of egypt." well, god madethe same promise to us when we came out of

the egypt of this world, and he's going tobe with us. he says, "my spirit is still with you, so don't be afraid. don't be afraid." so what an amazing thing this is. in factdown to verse 9 he says, "this new temple," imagine this spiritual building we're building,after a disappointment, after a devastation, after a trial, verse 9, "'this new templewill be greater than the one before us,' says the lord almighty. 'in this place i'll givepeace,' says the almighty god." i think that's what god wants us to recognize. he has positionedus through the challenges and the difficulties that we face in this life for growth. godspeaks through events, and he works these things for our good. so god's telling us,"be strong. be courageous. move forward. really

live your life in a dedicated manner to me,"and we can do that very thing because god's told us we can do that. we can be dedicateeven in difficulties, even in tragedy, because we recognize that by the authority of godand him working in our life, he promises to bring every heartbreak to healing.