Called to be Faithful...not Successful!

I know it's been a minute since I've posted on this blog, but lately the stirrings to write have started welling up once again.  Mostly because in the spring I start to ponder life all over again.

Every few years, I buy a new version of the Bible and take 2 or 3 years to read through it carefully.  This last time, I chose, instead of an actual translation, Jack Blanco’s paraphrase, The Clear Word Bible.  I’ve gathered some great devotional insight into some passages by considering his take on things.  As I read, I will often compare the current version I’m reading to the KJV, the NIV, the NASB and the NLT, just to get a fuller understanding of the passage...and sometimes, if a passage seems to hinge on a word, I’ll go back to the Hebrew or Greek Dictionaries.

Image source: Biblical Authorship

So I’ve been studying in the book of Zechariah lately.  I know...not one that we usually read, but since I’m going straight through it, that’s where I find myself, and in Zechariah 4, we find a passage that many of us have quoted as a memory verse for years.  It is in the context of God asking Zerubbabel, who was governor of Judah right after the first of the Babylonian exiles had been freed to go home, to rebuild the Temple.  There were all sorts of challenges.  The task was enormous, since all of the old Temple rubble had to be cleared first.  The giant stones that Solomon had placed centuries before were still lying about, as well as all the stuff the Babylonians didn’t take when they conquered.  

And no one had money to pay for the rebuilding.  They were freshly returned slaves trying to start life over again.  They were busy rebuilding their lives as they contracted their own houses.  They hadn’t even planted or harvested any crops yet and the Lord is now asking them to rebuild the Temple.  How was this going to happen?   And the Lord sends Zechariah a series of visions to encourage them.  In the 5th vision, recorded in the 4th chapter of Zechariah, we come to our famous passage that answers the questions.  First, from the New Living Translation. Note especially verses 6 and 7.

And I see two olive trees, one on each side of the bowl.” 4 Then I asked the angel, “What are these, my lord? What do they mean?”

Zech. 4:5    “Don’t you know?” the angel asked. 

“No, my lord,” I replied.

Zech. 4:6    Then he said to me, “This is what the LORD says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. 7 Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’”  NLT

Now from The Clear Word.

Zach 4:6. Then he explained, “These are the symbols of the work and power of the Holy Spirit.  So this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit will the work be done.’

4:7 What is this great mountain standing in Zerubbabel’s way?  It’s nothing!  It will melt at the presence of the Lord and flatten out and become a plain.  All the things that Zerubbabel and his people are worried about will disappear as they push ahead with the work.  They will rebuild the temple and at the laying of the last stone they will shout, ‘Praise the Lord! Blessings on His temple!’  

“Ok nice, Pastor, but what does that have to do with me?”  Thanks for asking.

First - when the Lord asks something of us, He isn’t asking that we accomplish it.  He’s only asking that we be faithful and obedient to the task He's calling us to.  It isn’t by my strength that it will be accomplished.  It isn’t by gathering a large amount of people and more “lifting power” that things happen.  It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that anything gets accomplished.  

So recognize that God isn’t asking you to be successful...only faithful to the task He has assigned.  

And secondly,  that mountain standing in your way?  “It’s nothing!  It will melt at the presence of the Lord and flatten out and become a plain.”  But it won’t flatten at the presence of you or me.  It will stay a mountain.  It isn’t by might, or power...but by His Spirit that it flattens.

And if we are working with His Spirit, all the things we worry about will disappear as we push ahead with what God has asked us to do.  And when all is said and done...we can’t/won't be able to take the credit.  We can only be thankful that we had a small part to play as we participated with the Lord and with that realization we can shout “Praise the Lord! He has done great things!"

Now...about that mountain you are facing...