Haggai 1:7 Thus said the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Every work, with every secret thing, shall reappear at the judgment-seat of Christ, whether good or whether evil. A journey ends somewhere; each step of it is somewhither. Whither, then, are we each going? Of some changes you must be aware, in some you have doubtless rejoiced. But what as to your souls? In what way have they changed? Are they fitter for their end, for that for which God created them? If you have not used God's grace in the last year, you are, humanly speaking, less in the way to use it this next. Would you prepare for anything, which you care about in this life, as you prepare for eternity? You would not so prepare for any race in this life. God has divided our lives into lesser portions. But each resting-place should give us pause, and force us into ourselves, and make us think, for a time at ]east, whether we have made ever so little progress in the way, or have sat down in the way, or have turned altogether aside out of the way. "Consider your ways." Consider what you have been doing, what you are doing, and whither those doings are tending. "Set your heart upon them," your heart, the seat of your affections. How, if you have not done it, are you to set about this considering your ways? How would you do if you suspected that you were out of your way on this earth? You would, if you could see it, look back to your starting-point, and see how, little by little, you had swerved from the right path. Then look back to earliest days, see by what lesser or greater steps thou first departedst from the narrow way; look how evil habits strengthen by repetition. "Sift thyself through and through," says the prophet, "and so sift on." Then shalt thou make progress, not if thou findest not what to blame, but if thou blame what thou findest. When thou didst not set thy heart upon thy ways, thou didst incur daily, well-nigh countless sin, in thought, word, desire, deed, yea, and in omission of duty. Then judge thyself, that thou be not judged of the Lord. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.WEB: This is what Yahweh of Armies says: "Consider your ways. |
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