Some days obedience feels unimpressive—like rebuilding with limited resources, limited energy, and a limited view of what God is doing. In Haggai’s day, the new temple looked smaller than the old one, and many hearts sank. Yet God spoke hope into that disappointment: what He was building would not be measured by outward shine but by His presence, His purpose, and His promised peace.

Steady Your Heart When You Can’t See the Glory Yet

It’s easy to assume that “better” must look bigger, louder, newer, or more impressive. But God doesn’t wait for ideal conditions to fill a place with His greatness. He meets willing hands and humble hearts. The people in Haggai were doing the right work, but they were discouraged because it didn’t match their memories. God answered that grief with perspective: His future glory would surpass their past.

That’s still how He works. He often plants glory like a seed before it feels like a harvest. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And when you’re tempted to despise small beginnings, remember: “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin” (Zechariah 4:10). What looks small to you may be the very stage where God shows how great He is.

Let God Define “Glory” and You’ll Stop Chasing Shadows

God’s glory isn’t just external beauty; it’s His weight, His reality, His presence among His people. The old temple had history; the new one would have God’s unfolding plan—moving toward a day when His presence would be known in an even deeper way. God was teaching them not to anchor their confidence to what they could replicate, but to what He promised to do.

That re-centers us, too. We can chase the glow of human approval, spiritual nostalgia, or polished outcomes. But Scripture keeps pulling us back: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And it reminds us where true treasure lies: “We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). If God is in it, it’s never “less,” even when it looks plain.

Receive His Peace, Then Rebuild With Courage

God didn’t just promise future splendor; He promised peace—His settled wholeness that quiets striving and steadies trembling hands. Peace is not a decoration added after everything is finished; it’s a gift God gives while the work is still underway. He doesn’t only meet you at the completion line; He strengthens you on the construction site.

Jesus echoes this same heart: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you… Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid” (John 14:27). And Paul shows what that peace does inside us: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). So take the next faithful step today—one prayer, one act of obedience, one repair, one conversation, one quiet “yes.” God specializes in filling ordinary faithfulness with extraordinary presence.

Father, thank You for Your glory and the peace You give. Strengthen me to obey today with faith, not comparisons, and use my small steps for Your great purposes. Amen.

CONTRARY TO POPULAR OPINION, the cultivation of a psychology of uncritical belief is not an unqualified good, and if carried too far it may be a positive evil. The whole world has been booby-trapped by the devil, and the deadliest trap of all is the religious one. Error never looks so innocent as when it is found in the sanctuary.

One field where harmless-looking but deadly traps appear in great profusion is the field of prayer. There are more sweet notions about prayer than could be contained in a large book, all of them wrong and all highly injurious to the souls of men.

I think of one such false notion that is found often in pleasant places consorting smilingly with other notions of unquestionable orthodoxy. It is that God always answers prayer.

This error appears among the saints as a kind of all-purpose philosophic therapy to prevent any disappointed Christian from suffering too great a shock when it becomes evident to him that his prayer expectations are not being fulfilled. It is explained that God always answers prayer, either by saying Yes or by saying No, or by substituting something else for the desired favor.

Now, it would be hard to invent a neater trick than this to save face for the petitioner whose requests have been rejected for non-obedience. Thus when a prayer is not answered he has but to smile brightly and explain, God said No. It is all so very comfortable. His wobbly faith is saved from confusion and his conscience is permitted to lie undisturbed. But I wonder if it is honest.

To receive an answer to prayer as the Bible uses the term and as Christians have understood it historically, two elements must be. present: (1) A clear-cut request made to God for a specific favor. (2) A clear-cut granting of that favor by God in answer to the request. There must be no semantic twisting, no changing of labels, no altering of the map during the journey to help the embarrassed tourist to find himself.

When we go to God with a request that He modify the existing situation for us, that is, that He answer prayer, there are two conditions that we must meet: (1) We must pray in the will of God and (2) we must be on what old-fashioned Christians often call praying ground; that is, we must be living lives pleasing to God.

It is futile to beg God to act contrary to His revealed purposes. To pray with confidence the petitioner must be certain that his request falls within the broad will of God for His people.

The second condition is also vitally important. God has not placed Himself under obligation to honor the requests of worldly, carnal or disobedient Christians. He hears and answers the prayers only of those who walk in His way. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight . . . . If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you (1 John 3:21,22; John 15:7).

God wants us to pray and He wants to answer our prayers, but He makes our use of prayer as a privilege to commingle with His use of prayer as a discipline. To receive answers to prayer we must meet God's terms. If we neglect His commandments our petitions will not be honored. He will alter situations only at the request of obedient and humble souls.

The God-always-answers-prayer sophistry leaves the praying man without discipline. By the exercise of this bit of smooth casuistry he ignores the necessity to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world, and actually takes God's flat refusal to answer his prayer as the very answer itself. Of course such a man will not grow in holiness; he will never learn how to wrestle and wait; he will never know correction; he will not hear the voice of God calling him forward; he will never arrive at the place where he is morally and spiritually fit to have his prayers answered. His wrong philosophy has ruined him.

That is why I turn aside to expose the bit of bad theology upon which his bad philosophy is founded. The man who accepts it never knows where he stands; he never knows whether or not he has true faith, for if his request is not granted he avoids the implication by the simple dodge of declaring that God switched the whole thing around and gave him something else. He will not allow himself to shoot at a target, so he cannot tell how good or how bad a marksman he is.

Of certain persons James says plainly: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. From that brief sentence we may learn that God refuses some requests because they who make them are not morally worthy to receive the answer. But this means nothing to the one who has been seduced into the belief that God always answers prayer. When such a man asks and receives not he passes his hand over the hat and comes up with the answer in some other form. One thing he clings to with great tenacity: God never turns anyone away, but invariably grants every request.

The truth is that God always answers the prayer that accords with His will as revealed in the Scriptures, provided the one who prays is obedient and trustful. Further than this we dare not go.

There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written. - John 21:25

Christ, the Son of God, is the Centre of Scripture; and the Book - whatever be the historical facts about its origin, its authorship, and the date of the several portions of which it is composed - the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the reference to the one "Name that is above every name," the name of the Christ, the Son of God.

" They that went before, and they that followed after, cried, "Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord." That Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life over the world.

And all the incompleteness of Scripture, its fragmentariness, its carelessness about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skillful painter’s handiwork, to emphasize the beauty and the sovereignty of that one central Figure on which all the lights are concentrated, and on which he has lavished all the resources of his art. So God - for God is the Author of the Bible - on this great canvas has painted much in sketching outline, and left much unfilled in, that every eye may be fixed on the central Figure, the Christ of God, on whose head comes down the dove, and round whom echoes the Divine declaration: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God that these are written, but it is that that representation may become the object of our faith. If the intention of Scripture had been simply to establish the fact that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God, it might have been done in a very different fashion. A theological treatise would have been enough to do that. But, if the object be that men should not only accept with their understandings the truth concerning Christ’s office and nature, but that their hearts should go out to Him, and that they should rest their sinful souls upon Him as the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no other way to accomplish that but by the history of His life and the manifestation of His heart. If the object were simply to make us know about Christ, we do not need a Book like this; but if the object is to lead us to put our faith in Him, then we must have what we have here, the infinitely touching and tender figure of Jesus Christ Himself set forth before us in all its sweetness and beauty, as He lived and moved and died for us.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you trust your soul to Him in these characters? If you do, I think we can shake hands. If you do not. Scripture has failed to do its work on you, and you have not reached the point which all God’s lavish revelation has been expended on the world that you and all men might attain.