Consider Your Ways

June 20, 2020

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REFLECTION

Consider Your Ways

By Mary McGinnis

Over the past few years, I have noticed a recurring theme in my picture taking. Since I love exploring nature through hiking and bicycling, I seem to take a lot of pictures of paths or roads. Particularly the ones with a bend up ahead, where you cannot see what is around the corner.

I see my life in these pictures.

Haggai was speaking to God’s people who to had journeyed through 70 difficult years of exile. They had seen much pain and suffering.  

God has also led me through difficult, painful times. That is like the path behind me, a path I must let go of before I can move forward.

Haggai’s audience had been rescued, brought back and now found a resting place in their long-lost home, Jerusalem. They were quietly resting there for 18 years. They got comfortable, rebuilding their homes and their lives. So comfortable in fact that they neglected rebuilding God’s house, the Temple. It lay in ruins while they lived their lives of comfort.

Often when hiking or bicycling, I will take a rest. I love to linger, breathe the air, listen to the birds, get a snack. But I soon realize that if I linger too long, my muscles will tighten, and my momentum will dwindle. My mind will start to make excuses about WHY I cannot move forward! After all, the path head is windy, maybe hilly, and often challenging.  

But then reality sets in. If I don’t move forward, I won’t get the chance to see the wonderful things ahead. I won’t get to see what lies around the corner. I won’t get to experience all that God has planned for me, the very things He has invited me to participate in.

In today’s reading, Haggai urges his people (and us) to “Consider your ways.”   

Literally, the phrase in the Hebrew language is “Put your heart on the road.”

He is calling us to think about where we have placed our hearts. What direction is our heart leading us, toward all that God has prepared for us? Or are we stuck in the grief, shame, and pain of our past? Are we lingering in our comfortable place, focusing only on ourselves and our needs? Or are we allowing God to lead us, walk with us, and guide us toward our next steps of His glorious path ahead? It will not always be easy, but He has promised to ALWAYS be with us, ALWAYS provide ALL we need. 

“The pathway that lies before me, only the Heavenly Father knows.

I will trust Him to unfold me, as He unfolds the rose.”

Prayer Practice - Prayer Walk. Consider your ways – spend time in prayer reflecting on life before quarantine and asking God where He is taking you next.