Consider…

 Consider…

These last couple of weeks, have not been so great physically…as I was exiting my local place of swimming and exercise, I slipped and fell on the ice. Two young men helped me to my car and I drove home in pain…not a good start for the day, but thankful they were so helpful…thus begins a small saga of life…most of us get to go through these times….mine is not finished yet…can’t sit well, or stand or walk much, spasms through back and leg that keep me from concentrating/sleeping … trips to ER, doctors for some relief, medications that may or may not numb the pain…

( my dog “considers” all this differently, the heating pads are great to curl up on, he doesn’t have to stay alone, etc)

You may know the story, different set of circumstances… events that take away our focus, add some anxiety, change our direction…

There is a 8 letter word that came to me this morning, “consider”…

When you are laid up, there is lots of considering….how to get out of bed with the least amount of pain, which meds to take, “why am I such a wimp?”, “help me not complain”, “what day is this?”, “how much longer!?”….

But, consider….it appears 89 times in the Word in the ESV version…

Definition of consider-

: to think about carefully

: to think of especially with regard to taking some action

: to take into account

: to regard or treat in an attentive or kindly way

: to gaze on steadily or reflectively

: to come to judge or classify

: REGARD

: REFLECT, DELIBERATE

A few “considers”…. 

Consider what God has done in the past…

And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day, and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place,

Deuteronomy 11:2-5

Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.

Deuteronomy 32:7

“For inquire, please, of bygone ages, and consider what the fathers have searched out.

Job 8:8 

I consider the days of old, the years long ago.

Psalm 77:5 

Consider how God has done for you personally…His love…

Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.

1 Samuel 12:24 

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things; let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Psalm 107:43 

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Isaiah 41:17-20 

24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 

27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Luke 12:24,27

Consider your plans…teaching…

Then the prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Come, strengthen yourself, and consider well what you have to do, for in the spring the king of Syria will come up against you.”

1 Kings 20:22

Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction.

Proverbs 24:32

She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

Proverbs 31:16 

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

Haggai 1:5,7 

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Consider others…

Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;

Psalm 41:1 

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

Hebrews 10:24 

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

James 5:11  

A few “considers”… makes one want to contemplate a bit more…

THANK YOU….