{"id":4667,"date":"2022-05-23T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T23:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4667"},"modified":"2022-05-21T10:32:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-21T16:32:25","slug":"work-for-i-am-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4667","title":{"rendered":"Work&#8230;for I am with you"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here&#8217;s a nice follow-up to <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4656\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">yesterday&#8217;s observation<\/a> that the Great Commission was given to doubting disciples&#8230;but that&#8217;s OK because they had Jesus&#8217; <em>power <\/em>and <em>presence<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other day I was reviewing one of my &#8220;goal&#8221; verses, which reminds me that important work requires effort:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD. (Haggai 1.8, NLT)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Haggai&#8217;s day, the temple needed to be rebuilt, but going up into the hills and bringing down timber sounds hard! I&#8217;ve had two knee replacements, and I&#8217;m always reminding myself, &#8220;rebuild the house&#8221;&#8230;physically, spiritually, mentally. The apostle Paul is clear that our bodies are today&#8217;s temple:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6.19, 20, ESV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the other day, I was thinking, &#8220;But I&#8217;m getting older. Things are just not what they used to be,&#8221; and I remembered another verse in Haggai that was helpful: even when things don&#8217;t look like much, God&#8217;s <em>power <\/em>and <em>presence <\/em>are available: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>T<\/strong>he LORD sent another message through the prophet Haggai. \u201cSay this to Zerubbabel&#8230;and to the remnant of God\u2019s people there in the land: \u2018Does anyone remember this house\u2014this Temple\u2014in its former splendor? How, in comparison, does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! But now the LORD says: Be strong, Zerubbabel&#8230;Be strong, all you people still left in the land. <strong>And now get to work, for I am with you<\/strong>, says the LORD of Heaven\u2019s Armies. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid&#8230;<strong>The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory<\/strong><\/em>&#8230;<em>\u2019&#8221; (Haggai 2.1 &#8211; 5, 9, NLT, emphasis mine)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God&#8217;s presence and power are available, and the future is brighter than the past! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. (2 Corinthians 4.16, NLT)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s a nice follow-up to yesterday&#8217;s observation that the Great Commission was given to doubting disciples&#8230;but that&#8217;s OK because they had Jesus&#8217; power and presence. The other day I was reviewing one of my &#8220;goal&#8221; verses, which reminds me that important work requires effort: Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=4667\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Work&#8230;for I am with you<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1dh","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4667"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4669,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667\/revisions\/4669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}