Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.
The prophet Haggai exhorted the lukewarm, self-centered people of God with these words: “Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1:5,7) The word consider means to pay attention to. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines the word consider this way: to fix the mind upon with a view to a careful consideration.
It is human nature to become creatures of habit. Rarely do we take the time to really consider our ways. As Christians, we can very easily slip into an outward form of godliness but be inwardly drifting away from The Lord in our daily routines. The book of Proverbs describes people who are walking on various paths. There is the way of the righteous, the way of the wicked, the way of life, the way to hell, and so on and so forth. The point is this, dear ones. Every single one of us is walking on some path or way. Nobody invents or creates their own path. Be it wicked or righteous, life or hell, we are walking on some path. The way of the Lord is a source of strength, grace, and fruitfulness to the upright. But the way of the wicked seduces them.
Reader, when was the last time that you took spiritual inventory and considered your ways? Receiving Christ as Lord and following Him is a way of life. It is a way that has been purchased for us by Jesus Himself. It is a way that has been laid out for us in the gospels. So as you go about your day today, deliberately consider your thoughts, consider your steps, consider your motives and your attitudes, consider your ways.
We have been redeemed to be a light in a dark place, a ray of hope in a world of hopelessness. Our flesh gravitates toward the carnal path of least resistance. The path of the righteous is a daily cross that is a sentence of death to self that gives way to a life that is alive unto God. The word amusement actually means to not consider. We have not been saved to amuse ourselves, but to bring glory to God. God’s grace gives us the strength to declare: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). Jesus alone is the way for us to follow. Consider your ways. Selah
