As a coach, it is easy to find your team “going through the motions”.  They are doing all the right things, and saying all the right things, and the coaches are coaching all the right things, but the team does not look right.

While it is difficult to see this going on, I think that we can all identify that this is not only an issue for teams, it is an issue for people.

We get in routines.

We ENDURE seasons of life.

We go from one activity to another without really stopping to see what is really going on.

I think that this, at least in one sense, is going on in Haggai 1.

Haggai 1 5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but 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.”

Think about it.  Because God gives us terrific advice throughout the Bible.  And as I talked to my FCA group on Friday, I warned them that the reason that God warns us or encourages us or commands us is because the issues he warns about are hard to follow.

Do Not Be Afraid.

Do Not Covet.

Do Not Give False Testimony.

These things seem so easy to follow.  And yet, we fear, we covet, we exaggerate.  And when we do, we walk in utter misery.  Because God has not designed us to get by.  He has wired us to be CONNECTED to Him and using that connection to help others to CONNECT to Him.

And in Haggai, God gives us a simple word that can change our world:

“Give Careful Thought To Your Ways”

That is a good word.

Because when we give careful thought to our ways, we can avoid, as He says in Haggai:

  • Working for something that never harvests
  • Eating but remaining hungry
  • Drinking but always being thirsty
  • Earning money that is spent before we collect it

God is so good.

He sees the end from the beginning and gives us a game plan on how to walk through this life without losing our way.

And yet, we lose our way.

I want to challenge you to Give Careful Thought To Your Ways.

To find God in the relationships that you build

To find Him in your daily work

To honor Him with what you eat and what you drink

To follow Him with your money

And to remind yourself who you are and how you can thrive:

There is no victory without God

There is no party that fills us up

No amount of money that can fulfill us

No way of life that works

When Solomon decided that he was lost, he went for it ALL.

Ecclesiastes 2 10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;  I refused my heart no pleasure.

And when he was done corrupting himself he was broken, and empty.

This is because we were not built to fill ourselves with whatever our hearts desire.

We were built to follow the Living God.

Give Careful Thought To Your Ways.

Listen to the words of Jesus:

Mark 8 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

And never, ever, forget that you were bought at a price and put here to do one, and only one, thing:

Love … And Worship … God

What flows out of that is something that we will never regret.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J