“Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” – Haggai 1:5-6
Have you ever been through a season like God describes in these verses? One in which nothing ever quite works out? One where you’re working hard but never really getting ahead? Where you have things but they don’t satisfy your desire for even more? Whenever you find yourself in such a season, it’s definitely worthwhile to do what the Lord commands here: consider your ways.
The reason the ancient Israelites were in a prolonged season of “meh” was that they had their priorities backwards. They were living for themselves while promising to eventually work on God’s priorities with their leftover time, energy, and treasure. As is usually true, their leftovers were crumbs at best. God doesn’t deserve our crumbs, He deserves our best!
When we don’t make our Lord our top priority, He will sometimes frustrate our other priorities to get us back on track spiritually. God promises throughout the Bible that when we make His priorities our priorities, He’ll take care of the rest. When He’s our top priority, our passion and hunger for Him and His work grows and finds satisfaction in Him. Meanwhile, our passion and hunger for earthly things diminishes and is also satisfied through Him. That’s the promise Jesus made in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
To be clear, not every season in the desert of “meh” is caused by having wrong priorities. What Haggai told the people of Israel was specific to their situation. However, quite often in our modern American life we make the same mistake they did and reap the same results. We work hard for ourselves and make little progress. We do little for the Lord and find ourselves distant from Him and cold toward Him. It can happen to anyone. So, whenever you find yourself with that “meh” feeling, remember to consider your ways… and #FollowJesus