Haggai 2:6-7 – “Moreover, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has said: ‘In just a little while I will once again shake the sky and the earth, the sea and the dry ground. ⁷ I will also shake up all the nations, and they will offer their treasures; then I will fill this temple with glory.”

The light of God is shining!  The grace of God has come!  The judgment and the restoration of God are at hand!  We can be fearful if we focus on the wrong things.   Love holds us up in difficult times.  Therefore, be strengthened knowing that you are loved!

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, death and life were my focus.   In those thoughts flow realities of natural and spiritual life.  God is a Holy and just God who cannot ignore sin and corruption.  Therefore, judgment on individuals and nations is unavoidable.  A shaking is coming. (Haggai 2).

We can focus on death and destruction and be consumed with the law!  We can focus on Christ and the Cross and become, as Paul said in Galatians 6:14-15, that through Jesus, the world is crucified to me and I to it.  The transformation of the New Birth moves us from death to life!

This is not an effort to keep a set of rules, but having a subdued heart of submission.  In that mindset, we avoid the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21). We pursue the things of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26).

Galatians 5:24 needs to be embraced: “And those who belong to Christ have controlled their weaknesses and passions.”   Then in verse 25 – “Let us therefore live in (by and through) the Spirit and surrender to the Spirit.”

In Christ, the world (flesh) is crucified to me and I to it.  We are free in Jesus! We can now LIVE, truly LIVE!