Hag 1:7   This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways."

  

The historical context of this verse is in the time after the return of Israel from the Exile. Haggai is one of the prophets bringing challenge, direction and encouragement to the people in Israel who have returned to rebuild the city. The people had done the obvious thing, which was to restore and build houses for themselves to live in, but then had sat back and done nothing more.

In respect of the Temple, the Lord said to them, “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" (v.4) and this was followed by the words of our verse today. He pointed out that all their efforts were bearing little fruit. Then He presents again this instruction.   It is a simple instruction that basically says, “Think about your life and what you have achieved. Are there clear signs of God's blessing on your life, and if not why not?”

 

We live in a nation, in Britain, where people work long hours and mainly are ‘well off'. But are we a happy and contented people? Is there peace and harmony in our lives? The answer to these questions has mainly to be, “No!” The news is constantly filled with bickering, hostility and anguish. Why? Because we are largely a nation that has disregarded our God. Less than 5% of the population worship God in a church on a Sunday.

We reap what we sow and we would do well to heed the instruction given here in our verse today. Think about it seriously. When the sun is shining it is easy to ignore the moral state of the country, but go through any newspaper and you will find lots of things they are criticising, whether it is the life of a celebrity, the goings on of Parliament, crime rates, rates of young girls getting pregnant, family breakdowns and easy divorce, the list goes on. As the Church, those of us who are Christians also need to ask questions about the state of the Church. Are we exactly what Jesus spoke of - doing the things he did (Jn 14:12), with his loving compassionate nature, receiving power and revelation from the Holy Spirit to glorify our Father in heaven? Perhaps we need to think some more about these things.