The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "REBUILDING OUR FAITH" for Saturday, 14 May 2016 with Scripture Malachi 3:6-12

The Upper Room Daily Devotional from Nashville, Tennessee, United States "REBUILDING OUR FAITH" for Saturday, 14 May 2016 with Scripture Malachi 3:6 “But because I, Adonai, do not change,
you sons of Ya‘akov will not be destroyed.
7 Since the days of your forefathers
you have turned from my laws and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“But you ask, ‘In respect to what
are we supposed to return?’
8 Can a person rob God?
Yet you rob me.
But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’
In tenths and voluntary contributions.
9 A curse is on you, on your whole nation,
because you rob me.
10 Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse,
so that there will be food in my house,
and put me to the test,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“See if I won’t open for you
the floodgates of heaven
and pour out for you a blessing
far beyond your needs.
11 For your sakes I will forbid the devourer
to destroy the yield from your soil;
and your vine will not lose its fruit
before harvest-time,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
12 “All nations will call you happy,
for you will be a land of delights,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
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I have loved you, says the LORD; but you say, “How have you loved us?”[Malachi 1:2 (CEB)]
Bills and paperwork for my struggling business were strewn around my cramped living space. I couldn’t help but wonder if my surroundings were the ruins of a failed life, the evidence of unmet expectations. Is God disappointed in me? I wondered. If not, where is God in this moment?
After their release from captivity in Babylon, the Israelites asked the same questions as they gazed over the ruins of their lives in Jerusalem. God answered with an assurance both simple and profound: “I love you.” God wasn’t concerned by the crumbling walls or the need to make up for lost time. Rather, God wanted the people to know of God’s love.
The answer is the same for us. God loves us right where we are today. What we may see as ruins, God sees as building blocks for lives greater than we could imagine for ourselves. As we shift our focus from our messy surroundings to God’s presence, God will redeem and rebuild our lives.
Read more from the author, here.
"More from Megan L. Anderson"

It’s my greatest fear to meet God face-to-face and feel like I have wasted my life. Failure to contribute my time, energy, and talents in a meaningful way toward the cause of the Kingdom nags at my heart. Why? Partly because, when I look around at the landscape of my life, it isn’t what I anticipated to see at this point. I’m certainly not where I hoped to be by now. This discrepancy between expectation and reality sometimes leads to frustration and disappointment. I assume that I’m not where I want to be because somewhere along the line I failed. I sometimes think, If I’m displeased with how I’ve managed my life so far, how much more displeasure must God feel?
I have a hunch that when most of us take stock of our current situations, what we see doesn’t quite match what we worked toward or imagined for ourselves. Did all of those hours working overtime, those extra classes for a Master’s degree, etc. get you exactly what you wanted? I doubt many of us would say yes. Thankfully, God is not concerned by failure. In his perfect love he doesn’t keep a record of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13:5). He doesn’t fixate on our failures but our potential to improve from them.
Any shattered pieces we bring God from our efforts, he can refashion into something eternally good and useful. This is particularly comforting news for someone often caught in a cycle of setting overly ambitious expectations for myself only to plunge into discouragement when I don’t live up to them. Fortunately no effort is wasted from God’s perspective. He can redeem anything. Just ask the post-exilic Israelites gazing out over the destruction ultimately caused by their failure to obey God. Where they saw waste, God saw a glittering future.
When you take a look at the ruins of your life – and we all have some – whether it’s a small pile of rubble or a crumbled cityscape akin to Malachi’s Jerusalem, consider the possibilities. How might an almighty, creative, loving God piece together something grand from that wreckage? A failed marriage or relationship, medical treatment, business, fitness goal, adoption, or what have you can become the material of eternal glory if we entrust it to the work of our Heavenly Architect’s hands. Allowing God to build us up with his love repairs the wear and tear of discouragement. 1 John 4:18 tells us that perfect love casts out fear. When we trust God’s love, failure is no longer something to fear.[Megan L. Anderson, Check out more of Megan's writing here: www.meganlanderson.freesite.website.]

The Author: Megan L. Anderson (Indiana, USA)
Thought for the Day: In the midst of my troubles, where can I sense God’s presence?
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for your unfailing love and closeness, no matter where we are in life. Amen.
Prayer focus: SMALL-BUSINESS OWNERS---------------------