Consider Your Ways…

Spoiler alert, nothing I say tonight will be about you improving your behavior to get something from God. In times past when I heard this verse from Haggai, my mind immediately shifted to what improvements I needed to make. I used to think it was a condemnation so I didn’t “consider my ways” very often. (smile) When understood in its context it becomes clear it is more about being honest with yourself and honest with God. Lest the latter caused you to cringe a bit, I don’t mean honest about what is wrong with you, I mean honest about how your life is going. Honest about whether or not you are truly happy. Honest about your frustrations, your fears, and what things need repair in your life. That kind of honest. Consider your ways is a gentle invitation to think about yourself and your life and provide a completely honest assessment of how it has been going. You have been working so hard at being your own sufficiency, your sole provider. Is that working out for you. Are you getting ahead or surviving? Are you receiving a reasonable return on your investment? Do you have good fruit in your life or just more and more endless struggle? Consider your ways is an invitation to finally get honest.

Are you really honest with yourself? I don’t mean your justifications and excuses for why you are the way you are. I know because I have lots of them too. And, I am not referring to standard phrases you have developed like saying, “Fine” in response to. “How are you doing?” You see, the answer is not fine usually, not fine at all. For most people it is light years from “fine.”People are unhappy or at minimum sort of happy, most of the time. After much repetition it becomes an accepted way to live. Not when you were young, by God. Back then you still had some fight in you, until the world talked you out of it. Consider your ways is an invitation to find your happiness again. It’s an invitation to get honest with yourself. You just may need some help. This whole be your own sufficiency thing is exhausting and to be honest in return, a massive ego trip! Imagine you and your 40, 50, 60 years of experience have equipped you to find life? Solve the dilemmas of mankind with your mind? No criticism intended, just an invitation for you, in the privacy of your own mind and heart, to get honest, get real, say what you really think because your heart already said it! God is by no means unaware of your dilemma. He already knows what help you need. So His invitation? Ask for help.

The funny thing concerning our reluctance to become honest with God is that He already knows our every thought and action before our lives even began. He knows you better than you know yourself. You are His creation. He sees where you struggle and knows why you struggle there. He sees what you cannot see. He sees what was behind your every wrong move, before you moved. He didn’t miss it, nor did He hold you accountable for it. His grace and mercy are truly limitless. So what is He asking you to consider? Where you do not measure up? What you need to do with yourself to stand approved before Him? No, no, no, He already knows the answers to those questions. He is asking you to look at your life and be honest with Him about how it is going? Is it working for you? Be honest. Personally, I am brutally honest with God. Often with more detail than He may like (smile). My point being that I have learned life works much better when I am honest with Him. How can I ever learn how to improve my life if I am not honest with the Source of life; my life? There is a spiritual solution to every problem you have ever encountered. There is a spiritual solution to every problem you have ever encountered. God is your solution. He knows how you tick in minute detail – pun intended. He gets you, as the saying goes. You never need to hide anything from Him. He is your sunny day when it’s been raining for weeks, months or even years. He is the light you need to illuminate the darkness. And, if you can take anymore, He is your sufficiency. He is the provider, not you. He is the One that guarantees your return on investment and multiplies it indefinitely. He is all those things you have been searching for and working for and killing yourself for. Let go of the reins a bit man and humble yourself. You are either blessed or you ain’t so you may as well be honest about it. You do not have a reason to fear Him. He is all love. Consider your ways.

Any time that you or I start thinking our lives revolve around what we do right or what we do wrong, we are not answering the right question. God does not bless us based on our merits nor does He reward us for our iniquities. It’s not all about us. It’s all about Him. It’s all about what He did for us in Christ that solved forever everything that was ever wrong with us. God is not condemning you and neither am I. Instead both of us are inviting you to consider your ways. Is what you are doing working? Is life turning out the way you hoped it would? It’s never too late to be honest with God and be honest with yourself. Consider your ways… Your happy depends on it.

Just some good thoughts…