After Careful Consideration...
January 1, 2021
Most of us have probably heard those words. Usually, they come in the form of some type of rejection like a credit or job application. It's easy to carry some baggage around associated with those words. But listen to how God used them when speaking to Haggai.
Consider carefully from this day forward... The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on I will bless you. Haggai 2:18-19 (CSB)
These words come at a turning point for Judah. God told Judah to consider its past until this point in the book. Then God said to start looking forward. Judah could not really move forward until it remembered where it had been. It could not repent until it carefully considered the sin it had to repent from.
Where have you been? That's a hard question to answer for some of us. It is painful. Now, at the beginning of a new year, it's time to ask God's new question: where are you going? Consider carefully your path from this day forward, and know that if God is leading on that path, He will bless you.
Want to read more? Check out this Warren Wiersbe book containing more commentary on Haggai.
Be Heroic: Demonstrating Bravery by Your Walk: OT Commentary: Minor Prophets ( Be ) (2ND ed.)