Consider Your Ways

By Oscar M. Baker

“Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; ‘Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.’ Thus saith the Lord of hosts; ‘CONSIDER YOUR WAYS’.” Haggai 1:5-7.

Ever have that experience? Ever feel that way? That everything that you’ve done is in frustration and in vain, and that everything that you have done has been put into a bag with holes and is gone. Ever feel that way? Come to the end of your rope? A folk, the gist of the whole thing is just this: YOU HAVE GOT TO ATTEND YOUR OWN FUNERAL!

Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ…”, so you’ve got to attend your own funeral, too! This ego of ours is such a big thing, we stumble all over it. There will come a time in your life, if it hasn’t come already, when you’ll go through some of this – the Lord will bring you to it. And how you’ll meet it is going to have a great bearing on the future. But there are times when we just come before the Lord and we say; “Lord, I’ve tried everything, I’ve done all that I could do,” you see, I have, I have, and (it’s all the “I” “and it hasn’t panned out. Everything has been disappointing and I don’t see the way out!” And of course the Lord has got us right where He wants us. That’s what He does; He just fixes it so that we come to that place!

And then we just have to say, “Well listen Lord, there isn’t a thing I can do, I can see that, I’m at the end of my rope so I’m just going to turn everything over to You. If You want me in the next 15 minutes, take me! I’m ready! Or if You’re going to use me for something in the ministry or something like that – go ahead, open up the way, I’m willing!” And that is when you get the victory. Get rid of that self – crucified – dead! I say, you’ll have to attend your own funeral. That is one of the toughest things to meet in life, but you’re just going to keep on putting things into a bag with holes until you come to that place.

Now I want to take you back in Scripture to the place where a man went through some of that. I’ll give you an example of a man who had it personally – that’s back in Job 13:15; “Though He slay me, yet I trust in Him: but I will maintain mine own ways before Him.” Job did not come to the place where he attended his own funeral until he could say in Job 42:5-6; “I have heard Thee, by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” A broken and a contrite heart is what God desires in us.

[Note: For the rest of this example on Job, listen to TFT tape 8/8/86. that Mr. Baker had given on the subjects of: “Peter” and “Job”.]