Are you stuck in a cycle of working hard but feeling empty? Deidre Braley unpacks Haggai’s powerful message to the Israelites—and to us: when we neglect God’s presence, our efforts fall flat. This episode reveals why shifting your priorities to build the Lord’s house first can break cycles of frustration and lead to true fruitfulness.

3 Key Takeaways

✅ Misplaced priorities drain your life.
Busyness without God leads to frustration and burnout.

✅ Making space for God invites His blessing.
When we shift focus to God—through rest, prayer, and obedience—He promises to be with us.

✅ Fruitfulness flows from God, not just effort.
Only God can make our work truly thrive and satisfy.

 Intersecting Faith & Life

• Are you busy building your own “house” while neglecting God’s?

• How can you intentionally make space for God this week—through rest, prayer, or obedience?

• What’s one step today to reorder your priorities toward Him?

Further Reading

• John 15:1-8

• Ecclesiastes 4:6

• Isaiah 55

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Full Transcript Below:

Build the Lord’s House First 

by Deidre Braley 

Haggai 1:7-9: 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. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 

In 586 BCE, the nation of Israel officially fell to the Babylonian Empire. King Nebuchadnezzar and his cronies sacked the temple and carried many of Judah’s inhabitants back to Babylon, where they lived as exiles for nearly fifty years. But in 539 BCE something interesting happened: the power shifted to King Cyrus of the Persian Empire, and under this new ruler, the Israelite exiles were allowed—even encouraged—to return to Jerusalem and rebuild God’s temple. 

At first, the returned exiles got right down to business with rebuilding. But before long, they began to experience threats from surrounding people groups. Under the weight of this opposition, work on the temple ceased, and for sixteen years, it continued to lay in ruins. 

In 520 BCE, however, a prophet named Haggai began to rouse the spirits of the returned Israelites again. Through Haggai, the Lord gave the Jewish people a very clear message: it was time to start building his house again. 

During their sixteen-year hiatus from reconstruction, it seems that the Jews had concerned themselves with seeking all the ordinary essentials for living: growing food, eating, drinking, dressing, working, and building homes for themselves. But as the Lord pointed out through Haggai, none of these pursuits had been as fruitful as they could have been. He said, “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” (1:5-7). 

Have you felt like no matter how hard you work, it feels like your wages are going into a bag with holes? Or that no matter how earnestly you plant, you just seem to keep pulling up weeds? In my life, I’ve certainly experienced this type of fruitlessness—and it’s exhausting. Though it seems like we’re doing all the right things, at the end of the day we come up feeling empty and spent. 

Now, this is where the world might hand us self-help books, or coach us on how to be more effective, or tell us to just work harder. But through Haggai, we learn that the answer to our fruitlessness is not to double down and do even more; rather, it is to shift our priorities.

According to the Lord, his people’s frustrated efforts were a direct result of their misplaced priorities. Through Haggai, he said, “...my house…lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house” (1:9). While they had focused on providing for themselves, they had neglected to create a space for the Provider himself to dwell alongside them. They got so focused on the fruit that they forgot about the one who makes fruit grow in the first place. As a result, their efforts came to little. 

Intersecting Faith & Life 

Are you experiencing a sense of fruitlessness in your life? Do you feel that your efforts are constantly being frustrated, like you’re running in place while someone holds the back of your shirt? If so—is it possible that you, like the returned exiles, have gotten so focused on producing the fruits of a good life that you’ve forgotten to prioritize the One who actually makes them grow? 

If the answer is ‘yes,’ then the next step is to ask God what type of space he would like you to make for him in your life. 

God’s instruction for the Jewish people in response to their misaligned priorities was this: “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…” (Haggai 1:8). And when they had obeyed the Lord in this manner? He told them, “I am with you…” (Haggai 1:13). For you, making space for God might look less like creating a physical temple and more like entering in Sabbath rest, or setting aside time for intentional prayer each day, or being obedient to something that he’s been asking you to do. 

It is seemingly ingrained in our human nature to forget that—above all things—the sustenance we need most is neither food nor drink, but rather God’s presence. Haggai reminds us that it is only when we prioritize making space for God in our lives that we will experience the satisfaction we so desire. 

Further Reading 

• John 15:1-8 
• Ecclesiastes 4:6 
• Isaiah 55

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