IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Give Careful Thought to Your Ways

Date: Feb. 26, 2025

Passage

Haggai 1:1-15 (ESV)

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, “I am with you, declares the LORD.” 14 And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 1:5

Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways.

After 70 years of exile in Babylon, the people of Israel, according to the word of the Lord, were allowed to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple of the Lord their God. Work began in earnest, but it quickly came to a halt when opposition to the building came up. They reasoned that it must not be the right time to build the house of the Lord. Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah and Joshua the high priest. The Lord rebuked them for living in comfort in their paneled houses, while the temple of the Lord remained in ruins. He told them twice to give careful thought to their ways. Their struggles were from the Lord, that they may repent and come back to him and build his house.

When they heard the word of the Lord, Zerubbabel and Joshua repented their ways, along with the whole remnant in Judah, and they began building the house of the Lord. Life has many struggles that keep us very busy. It is easy to forget the Lord amidst those struggles. But let us give careful thought to our ways and come back to him.

Prayer: Father, help me to repent my busyness and lack of thought to your ways. Help me to think carefully about my ways and deeply consider yours.

One Word: Give careful thought to your ways

Daily Bread

This is How You Should Pray

Matthew 6:9-15

Key Verse: 6:9

Pray then like this:

  “Our Father in heaven,
  hallowed be your name.

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