Ezra 6:22 For seven days they celebrated with joy the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because the Lord had filled them with joy by changing the attitude of the king of Assyria so that he assisted them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

I pray that you not only focus on the celebration days in your life but also take the time to appreciate God’s teaching in your preparation days. 

Every celebration day is preceded by preparation days. For example, you can’t have a wedding without preparation months! And when we look back at the preparation season for the people of Israel from the first to the sixth chapter of the book of Ezra, we can read that they went through quite a journey.

Their journey to rebuild the Lord’s temple was not in any way smooth; it started well with King Cyrus allowing the exiles (by King Nebuchadnezzar) to return to Jerusalem. Then the alter of the Lord was rebuilt, Great!

But like in everything we are going through, there will be seasons of struggles when people won’t believe in your business idea, or the depression does not seem to get better. And in Ezra 4, the people of Israel also faced opposition. Their struggles came from their enemies, causing the work on the temple of God to stop and remain at a standstill; until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.

There is always a way out with God. He will use circumstances and people to take us out of our dry season. The good news is that Jesus is always watching over us whether we are in the valley or on the mountain top. The secret here is to always stay closer to God despite what we are going through by musing on God’s words, praying and making God our number one priority.

I pray that you desire to get closer to God to learn in your preparation seasons and have a God-centered heart posture in your celebration seasons!