November 20

Zechariah 4
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. When I was in seminary, the administration told us that the hardest time of the years was in the middle of the program. If you took a full load each quarter, the M.Div. program was three years long. After a year and a half, the excitement of beginning a new thing was definitely worn off. There was still no light at the end of the tunnel. It was still another year and a half or two years until the toil was finished. A lot of guys became discouraged and quit at that point. For them it was a mountain that could not even be climbed, much less moved.
Zerubbabel had been building the temple for ten years. It was a monumental task. It probably seemed that it would never end. The Lord comes alongside him to encourage him. Mountain moving is a specialty of the Lord; after all, He made them. The Lord wanted him to know that only His Spirit could accomplish such a task. 6 So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts. 7 ‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ ” The Lord gives us the grace to complete the tasks which He gives us. Grace is the unmerited favor and ability to accomplish what God designs for us to do.
We are designed to build the temple, His church. It is a life-long task. Often times it seems as if there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Weariness can easily set in, but our Lord is mountain mover. Sometimes He is a tunnel digger, and always He is the light in the tunnel. In the toil and in the darkness, He calls out, “Grace, grace to it!” He gives us what we need. That is His glory! Indeed, we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john