Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it’. (Haggai 1:5-6)
Exploring the Barren Fig Tree further, I came across this passage in Haggai. As a farmer’s daughter, I have been quite disturbed by some of the suggestions being made regarding eating meat as part of the climate change debate. Without going into too much detail, I do know that if we take livestock off our fields, we are likely to eventually find that we end up with a scenario where our soil is unable to grow very much at all. Our animals put much nurture and fertiliser back into the soils they graze from and are very much part of our agricultural cycle. If soil is not fertilised by livestock, farmers have to purchase expensive man made fertilisers and we have read recently how much they have increased in cost!
Haggai describes such a scenario when he confronts the Jewish people in his day, as they were devoting so much attention to the individual trees in their lives that they lost sight of the forest that is God’s eternal purpose. Are we guilty of doing the same?
In Psalm 119:59-60 (I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.), David shows us how to restore harmony and productivity to our lives by bringing them into line with God’s ways and to make obedience to His commands our first priority.
Has our sleeping giant been deprived of the nourishment that it needs to awaken? Are we too busy to see His plans and purposes for our lives? Do we need to step back, take a deep breath, nurture those precious seeds that were planted over the years and walk along our anointed path?
Dear God,
We thank you that even though we have our own idea of how our life should look, often setting out according to our plans, that your ultimate purpose prevails. We ask that you prompt us when we set out to make plans that we make them according to your will, and not our own. We ask that you remind us to come alongside you as we surrender every detail to fulfil your greater purpose. Please align our hearts with yours, our ideas with yours, and our will with yours. For your ways are higher than ours and your plans are greater than ours, and nothing is impossible with you. Lead us every step of the way.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.