Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40
“These are the two things which our afflictions should put us upon.
1. A serious consideration of ourselves and a reflection upon our past lives. Let us search and try our ways, search what they have been, and then try whether they have been right and good or no; search as for a malefactor in disguise, that flees and hides himself, and then try whether guilty or not guilty. Let conscience be employed both to search and to try, and let it have leave to deal faithfully, to accomplish a diligent search and to make an impartial trial.
Let us try our ways, that by them we may try ourselves, for we are to judge of our state not by our faint wishes, but by our steps, not by one particular step, but by our ways, the ends we aim at, the rules we go by, and the agreeableness of the temper of our minds and the tenor of our lives to those ends and those rules. When we are in affliction it is seasonable to consider our ways, that what is amiss may be repented of and amended for the future, and so we may answer the intention of the affliction.
We are apt, in times of public calamity, to reflect upon other people’s ways, and lay blame upon them; whereas our business is to search and try our own ways. We have work enough to do at home; we must each of us say, “What have I done? What have I contributed to the public flames?” that we may each of us mend one, and then we should all be mended.
2. A sincere conversion to God: “Let us turn again to the Lord, to Him who is turned against us and whom we have turned from; to Him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and ruler. We have been with Him, and it has never been well with us since we forsook Him; let us therefore now turn again to Him.” This must accompany the former and be the fruit of it; therefore we must search and try our ways, that we may turn from the evil of them to God.”
Matthew Henry (1662-1714) in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Lamentations 3:37-41.
For 21 years, I have convened seminary advancement workers from across America to “test and examine” our ways and, as needed, return to the Lord. Each year it seems to get better.
I am in Dallas, Texas, at Dallas Theological Seminary (pictured above) and it’s been a rich time discussing the spiritual and strategic dynamics related to growing givers to support seminaries.
Whether I work with new or emerging seminaries or some of the largest ones in the world, many of the best practices transfer to each other and, at meetings like this, I learn new ones.
Pray for us that our reflection will, as needed, lead to conversion, and that God will reset our hearts and equip participants to do more than raise up gifts for seminaries but raise up givers for God’s kingdom.
For the charities you support, encourage them to “test and examine” their ways with peers regularly, and as needed, return to the Lord. We need each other to stay on track and to rally rich generosity.
And let us all return to God with “repentance and reformation” and see Him as “owner and ruler” of all we possess, and in so doing, live, give, serve, and love more generously today and every day.