“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Be strong and finish the task! Ever since the laying of the foundation of the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, you have heard what the prophets have been saying about completing the building.“

Before the holidays I was working with an Executive Director on an event that will be happening later this month in New York City during GRAMMY week. As we were finishing the brainstorming call, he asked what the next step should be?  I suggested that he write the invitation like he wants the event to be envisioned and completed, that way we just plan to what the invitation states.  And, likely the event will happen that way because he knows where he wants to finish, before he even starts.  I often encourage this approach.  Write the magazine article now for what we want to happen five years from now.  If we start with the finish, we can back our way into where we should start.

God challenged generations of His people to complete the building of the Temple.  All of this was predicated on their faithfulness and commitment to Him first and foremost, not their construction skills. The Temple was a building. The process was the building of them as His followers.  We now know that the building itself was to never be the thing to be revered, we know that God sent Jesus as the completion of His reign and that we are to look to Him now as the Temple completed.  However, one thing remains the same for us as it was with the Jewish people, it is our faith and commitment to serve and follow Him that matters.  Today, we are all building “something” and we may feel called by God to do so as part of our work.  Regardless if feeling called or not, He is imploring us to finish whatever it is we start as if we are finishing for Him.

Reference: Zechariah 8:9 (New Living Translation)