3 Transformational Life Lessons from Haggai

Years ago, I participated in a Wednesday evening Bible study. Each week we slowly worked our way through scripture, one book at a time. As we were about to wrap up another book, I asked for suggestions as to which book was next. Someone piped up and suggested Haggai. So, that’s what we did.

We discovered that this short book has lessons for our lives today. Here are three such lessons.

Have the right priority – Haggai 1

 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord.  

Haggai 1:4–8 (ESV)

God promised his people that he would take care of them if they would put him first. Jesus reiterated the promise for his disciples in Matthew 6:33. When we put God first in our lives, he will take care of our needs. He does this in many ways.

One way he takes care of our needs is that he gives us wisdom to better manage our resources. When we fail to put him first, we often experience what Haggai describes in this passage. I have personally experienced God’s faithfulness when I have put him first and have also witnessed the futility and frustration in other lives when they have failed to do so.

When we obey, God empowers

 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, declares the Lord.” And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Haggai 1:12–15 (ESV)

When we are willing to obey, that willingness can inspire the accomplishment of great things. When we get to work, God orchestrates the necessary people and resources to accomplish what he has called us to do.

When we are obedient, God’s promises are fulfilled – Haggai 2

Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”

Haggai 2:19 (ESV)

When we decide to obey, God’s conditional promises are activated. Many of God’s promises are conditional, that is, they are based on our obedience. God promised the children of Israel that he would bless their land when they honored him with worship and obedience. This verse reinforces that promise.

The same is true today. God promises us many things in the Bible. Many of those promises are conditional. When we trust him enough to do the things he asks us to do, we can be sure that he will keep his promises. God is always faithful and true.

Get Serious

I want to challenge you to make God the priority of your life as you move into the new year. And when you do this, just watch what he does in and through you! Your world will never be the same.

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