You may have heard people say we should never act out of fear. They're wrong. If you're jogging in the woods and hear the growl of a bear you shouldn't say, ″I choose not to act from fear. I choose love.″ You'll be lunch!

God leads with hope, but He doesn't leave out an appropriate fear. He promised to bless Israel's obedience when He led them into the promised land. They would enjoy peace and prosperity, large families and bumper crops (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). In that same breath, He also warned them of the consequences for disobedience (vv. 15-68).

At the entrance to the promised land, God warned Israel that disobedience would heap upon their heads the curses of the covenant. Everything that should have gone right would go painfully wrong. They would suffer loss after loss until they returned to Him (vv. 15-68). Israel rejected God anyway and was exiled into Babylon. God knows that He is our life, and that disregarding Him will inevitably ruin our lives. He loves us too much to allow that, so He disciplines us to bring us back to himself.

Now Judah is back in the promised land, but they still haven't learned their lesson. They're stuck because they haven't put God and His temple first. So God disciplines them again, calling for ″a drought on the fields . . . on people and livestock, and on all the labour of your hands″ (Haggai 1:11).

God loves us too much not to discipline us. Whether or not our suffering is for any specific sin, every trial seeks to turn our hearts towards Him. God tells us to ″endure hardship as discipline″ (Hebrews 12:7), knowing that our Father only ″disciplines the [ones] he loves″ (v. 6). It's no fun being stuck, but our predicament does force our eyes to look above and lock firmly onto God.

The Lord Almighty must be our number one pursuit, whether we feel like we're winning, stuck in a rut, or just starting out. For the children of Israel, pursuing God meant going up into the mountains and bringing down timber to ″build [God's] house, so that [God] may take pleasure in it and be honoured″ (Haggai 1:8). What does pursuing God mean for you today?