Haggai 1:7 - "Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Consider
your ways!""
The book of Haggai was written after the return of some of the
Israelites from Babylonian captivity. When the people returned to the
land they began to build their own houses but they left the house of God
in ruins. The Lord says later on in that first chapter that they were
earning wages but it was as if they were putting them in a bag with
holes in it. Their wages were not profiting them. Why is that? It is
because their priorities were backwards. They were seeking first their
own pleasure and comfort and letting the things of the Lord take second
place. And so the message of the Lord for them is "Consider your ways!" Twice in the short book of Haggai, the Lord tells His people to, "Consider
your ways!" God wants us to consider ourselves. Our hearts, attitudes,
actions, behaviors, mindsets, and so on. The best way to do this is to ask God
to reveal to us our true state, because we're really good at deceiving
ourselves, and convincing ourselves that we're really okay and don't need to
change. But if you ask God to search you and reveal to you the true state of
your heart He will do it. And all to often what He reveals to us isn't
comfortable, but it's the beginning of a growth process. This is the pattern
that David, the man after Gods own heart, laid out in Psalm 139:23-24 where he prayed -
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And
see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
God knows all things. He knows if there is something wicked in our lives that
we've become blind to, and if we ask Him to reveal it to us He will.
Again, the results are not comfortable, and will most likely cause sorrow, but it is necessary. In the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians he pointed out several things that they were doing horribly wrong, and when they realized this, they were sorrowful, and in 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 he says - "I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter."
Godly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance leads to a closer more intimate walk with the Lord. The closer we get to God, the more "our ways" become more like "the way everlasting." Hebrews 12:11 tells us - "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." When we consider our ways, though it may begin in sorrow, its end is righteousness. God doesn't want us to be like the world, He wants us to be like Him. And in order to be like Him we need to daily examine ourselves and open ourselves up to allow God to search us and know our hearts and our thoughts and to reveal to us any wicked way in ourselves. And after He has shown us the wrong we need to repent of it and ask Him to lead us in the paths of righteousness, in the way everlasting.
Haggai 1:5 - Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!"
Again, the results are not comfortable, and will most likely cause sorrow, but it is necessary. In the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians he pointed out several things that they were doing horribly wrong, and when they realized this, they were sorrowful, and in 2 Corinthians 7:9-11 he says - "I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter."
Godly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance leads to a closer more intimate walk with the Lord. The closer we get to God, the more "our ways" become more like "the way everlasting." Hebrews 12:11 tells us - "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." When we consider our ways, though it may begin in sorrow, its end is righteousness. God doesn't want us to be like the world, He wants us to be like Him. And in order to be like Him we need to daily examine ourselves and open ourselves up to allow God to search us and know our hearts and our thoughts and to reveal to us any wicked way in ourselves. And after He has shown us the wrong we need to repent of it and ask Him to lead us in the paths of righteousness, in the way everlasting.
Haggai 1:5 - Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways!"
No comments:
Post a Comment