Consider Your Ways |
August 26 Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruins? [Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways and set your mind on what has come to you.] You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it. —Haggai 1:4-6 Beginning in Haggai 1:2, we see a group of people whom God had told eighteen years previously to rebuild His house. They still had not been obedient to what He had told them to do; yet they didn't understand why their lives were in a mess. They wondered where the blessing of God was. After reminding them of their disobedience to His instruction, the Lord spoke to them the verses above. Does this sound like anybody you know? How often have you heard someone say, "I just don't understand what's going on, God. I just don't understand?" Now look at the answer in Haggai 1:7, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared." In other words, if we are not satisfied with what is going on in our lives right now, maybe we should look back and let God show us how the way we have conducted ourselves has affected what is happening to us now. We must be willing to change our ways if we want to receive His blessing. If we are willing to change from the previous and present conduct that is holding back God's blessings, we can have greater victories than what we have ever had before. |
