Consider Your Priorities
The book of Haggai is only two chapters long, but it carries a message that cuts right to the heart. God speaks, and within three months the whole nation changes direction (Haggai 1:1; 2:20). When God speaks clearly, people move.
Haggai’s message can be summed up in one simple challenge:
“Consider your ways.”
In other words: Think. Stop. Look at your life. Are your priorities right?
That’s not just an ancient question. It’s a gospel question. The Lord Jesus says the same in the New Testament: “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Haggai helps us face six questions that still matter today.
Six Questions God Asks Through Haggai
1. Is it time for you to focus on your own life while God is pushed aside?
2. Why is life not working? Why the emptiness? Why the frustration?
3. Do you remember when things were better — spiritually, morally, personally?
4. Can you be holy if you do sinful things?
5. Can you be clean if there is filth in your life?
6. Does God still have the resources to bless you?
These questions lead into Haggai’s four big lessons.
Lessons from Haggai — and the Gospel They Point To
1. Consider Your Ways (1:2–15)
Get your priorities right.
The people had stopped building God’s house for 15/16 years. Opposition had discouraged them, but over time, they became comfortable. Their own homes were finished, panelled, and pleasant — but God’s house lay in ruins.
God asks them:
“Is it time for you to dwell in your panelled houses, while My house lies waste?” (1:4)
2. Don’t delay - do something about your relationship with God
It wasn’t that they refused to build. They simply said, “Not now.”
That’s still the most common response to the gospel. Not rejection — just delay.
3. Make your relationship with God the priority!
“Seek first the kingdom of God…” (Matthew 6:33)
“The night comes when no one can work.” (John 9:4)
4. Stop and think.
Their hard work wasn’t producing satisfaction because God was no longer first.
“You earn wages to put into a bag with holes.” (1:6)
The New Testament puts it plainly: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
When they obeyed, something beautiful happened:
• They feared the Lord
• They worked together
• God stirred their hearts
• And God said, “I am with you.” (1:13)
The Lord Jesus gives the same promise today because he ‘died for our sins’, He was buried and He rose again on the 3rd day. The result is that ‘through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins’.
By faith, he comes to the person who repents of their sin and trusts in Him. He blesses them with forgiveness, peace, hope, love, His presence and the guarantee of heaven.
All photos courtesy of Unsplash
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