Devotional Thought : Haggai 1:10

Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. Haggai 1:10

This is God's word to his people through Haggai and God clearly states, it is “because of you (God’s people)” that the land had dried up.

It is very easy for us as Christians to blame government policies, or moral laxity, or the public’s unbelief in God for drought, bush fires, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. I even read that a prominent Christian speaker was blaming the bush fires on the government policy to legalized abortion.

We like to have tragedies explained. Then we feel like we have some control over our circumstances. It makes us feel safer. However it is not a happy thought that it might be us that is to blame for some adversities! The Bible teaches that it is the responsibility of God’s people to pray if we are to see our land restored (2 Chronicles 7:14).

We deceive ourselves and underestimate God’s holiness if we think we can avoid disasters by our righteous behaviour. Think about Job. “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Yet Job had more disasters in a week than most of us have in a lifetime. His righteous behaviour did not protect him from these happenings. Righteous behaviour ought to flow from our desire to please God and not from an attempt to bribe God into blessing us.

We are not always going to avoid tragedy. We live in a fallen world and God has not yet restored to us all that was lost at the fall. That day is still coming. In the meantime the Biblical directive is to humble ourselves and pray that God will restore our land.