Haggai 1:1-2:9
BIG IDEA: Make God’s priorities your own, knowing that he is faithfully working out his purposes through you.
KEY VERSE: Haggai 1:4, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in [expensive] panelled houses, while this house [of the Lord] remains a ruin?’
Priorities: What To Value
What is it time for?, Haggai 1:1–6
- ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’ (1:5,7)
- Our values shape our priorities, and our priorities shape the way we live.
Understand God’s priorities, Haggai 1:7–11
- ‘… build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honoured.’ (1:8)
- God calls us to examine whether our priorities truly reflect his glory.
Respond to God’s Word, Haggai 1:12–15
- ‘I am with you’. (1:13)
- God’s people hear, obey and begin the work. God strengthens them for it.
Perspective: How To Keep Going
When faithfulness feels unimpressive, Haggai 2:1–5
- ‘Be strong and work. For I am with you.’ (2:4)
- When progress feels slow and ordinary, keep going because God remains with his people.
Remember what will last, Haggai 2:6–9
- ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. (2:6-7)
- What seems small now is caught up in God’s eternal purposes and his coming glory.
Consider Your Ways
- Some of us need Haggai 1: Are God’s priorities really our priorities?
- Others need Haggai 2: Faithfulness when progress feels slow.
- God is with us. Be strong in him. Nothing done faithfully for his glory is wasted. His reality will last.
My One Thing...
What’s one thing that struck, challenged, or encouraged you today? Take 60 seconds to write it down and share it over morning tea.