Consider Your Ways

Haggai 1:2 - Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, "This people says, 'The time has not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built.'"

There must be a strong message going on. I flipped open the Bible to Haggai, an Old Testament prophet. And the words above made another impact on what I've been writing lately about turning ourselves around and thinking we are not like "those" who need a Savior.

In the fourth verse of Haggai we read what the prophet was prompted by God to speak: "Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?" And verse five goes on to say: Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider your ways!"

Here's more that the LORD of hosts admonished the people: "You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes." 

Now I realize this was in regard to rebuilding God's house, His temple, while the people were bent on putting their time, resources and efforts into their own homes instead. But I think there's an underlying message here, one that fits in with the past two days' blogs.

First of all let me just say that God calls our bodies a temple. When we are in Christ it houses the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 16:19). We must work at maintaining it. We should not live our lives on earth doing only as we desire...and if and when it is necessary to look to the Lord for whatever it is we need in a time of disaster...then do it. Christ came so that we might have life and more abundantly...even here on earth. There should be a seeking and thirsting now after the Lord, while He may still be found. There is no better time than now to consider your ways, says the LORD of Hosts. 

As an aside...God provided a bit of an example of thirsting, coming to the end of self and seeking a life sustaining drink. I was working in the yard and was heading back into the house when I heard the familiar sound of hummingbird wings. She was trapped in the garage, unable to see the wide-open doors to freedom just below her. She hummed and buzzed and squeaked flying back and forth looking for an exit. I stood helplessly knowing it's not easy to capture a creature so small, fast and so distraught.

A thought flitted through my mind and I acted upon it. Get the hummingbird feeder. Hang it on the garage door. It will be low enough for her to see out and when she gets weary enough and needs some of that sugary sustenance she'll rest and drink and might see her chance for freedom. So I did that.

I sat on the steps in the garage and waited and, yes, she perched and drank...and drank...and drank. As she did I prayed that the Lord would help her find her way to freedom and in an instant she was out to a nearby garden.

Do you see the connection? We get helplessly lost and need a Way out. Jesus is that Way and He provides the drink that will satisfy and nourish. He is the Drink and the Way to freedom for our souls.

In life we are never fully satisfied...we sow but don't bring all we think we really need; we have food to eat and enough to drink, but we sometimes want more, just because it "tastes like more"; we are clothed but there's always that new item we just have to have; the money we make...is spent and spent and spent. This is an indication there is something missing deep within. Something needs to be built up within us.

There is only one thing that satisfies and needs to be built up...a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the wellspring of fresh, living water. He is our provision. He is all we will ever need because what we need is the assurance of eternal life. Pure and simple. Consider now your ways and take this delicious drink.

John 4:13-14 - Jesus answered and said to her [Samaritan woman], "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."