Article
Overcoming Discouragement
Haggai exposes two common sources of discouragement that still plague leaders today.
Have you ever been truly discouraged?
Not mildly frustrated. Not just worn out after a long week. But the kind of discouragement that makes you quietly wonder, “Can I actually keep going?”
Several years into planting in Baltimore, I hit that wall.
We could not find a permanent space to meet. Someone I loved left the church and told me it was because I hadn’t met their expectations. We had just welcomed our first child, and sleep was a distant memory. I was working nonstop. My mom had just been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, and we were wrestling with the heartbreaking decision of placing her in a home. Financially, we had leveraged everything to move.
One Thursday, after finishing a sermon, I popped a tire on the way to a meeting. I pulled over, sat on the curb, and cried. I remember praying out loud, “God, I gave up everything to serve you. Shouldn’t it feel easier than this?”
If you are a church planter, pastor, or ministry leader, you have likely had your own curbside moment. The prophet Haggai speaks directly into that space.
In Haggai 1, the people had stopped building the temple because their priorities were wrong. They were putting themselves before God. But in chapter 2, something different happens. They are obeying now. They have restarted the work. Yet progress feels slow. Resources are limited. The results look unimpressive.
And discouragement sets in.
The message of Haggai 2 is this: Discouragement shrinks when we remember who is with us and where God is taking us.
The Anatomy of Discouragement
Haggai exposes two common sources of discouragement that still plague leaders today.
1) Unmet Expectations
Discouragement is often the distance between our expectations and reality.
Israel assumed that obedience would lead to immediate blessing. They had repented. They were rebuilding. Surely life would get easier now. Instead, crops were still scarce. The temple was barely a foundation. The Feast of Tabernacles, normally a joyful celebration of abundance, became a painful reminder of what they lacked.
God asks in Haggai 2:3, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?”
They had imagined something glorious. What they saw felt small.
Church planters know this feeling. You launch with vision and faith. You picture a thriving congregation, baptisms, and multiplication. Instead, you count folding chairs and wonder who will come back next week. You thought obedience would simplify life. Instead, it exposes new challenges.
Many leaders quietly wrestle with thoughts like these:
I thought by now the church would be healthier.
I thought my marriage would be stronger.
I thought this sin would be gone.
I thought generosity would unlock blessings.
I thought following Jesus would feel more triumphant than this.
Obedience does not eliminate hardship. Sometimes it emphasizes that hard work remains.
If your expectations are shaped more by comfort than by Scripture, discouragement will move in quickly.
2) Unhelpful Nostalgia
The second source of discouragement in Haggai 2 is nostalgia.
Some of the older Israelites remembered Solomon’s temple. It was magnificent, funded by a united kingdom at the height of its power. Gold covered the walls. Skilled craftsmen were hired from surrounding nations.
Now they were scraping together materials as a small, recently returned remnant.
Ezra 3 describes the scene when the foundation was laid. Younger people shouted for joy. Older leaders wept. The noise of celebration and grief blended together.
Nostalgia can paralyze present obedience.
It is good to honor what God has done. It is dangerous to idolize it. Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”
In ministry, nostalgia often sounds like this:
Our sending church had so much more momentum.
I miss Sundays before I had to preach every week.
I miss members who have left.
Church felt simpler in the early days.
When your eyes are fixed on what was, you will struggle to see what God is doing now.
Unmet expectations and unhelpful nostalgia left Israel weary and ready to quit. And God does not rebuke their weakness. He meets it with 2 promises.
Promise 1: My Presence Is With You
Three times in Haggai 2:4, God says, “Be strong.” Being strong does not mean pretending you’re fine. It means not quitting. Why? “For I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
That’s it. That’s the promise.
Verse 5 reinforces it: “My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” God does not promise an easier rebuild. He does not promise immediate success. He promises Himself.
This has always been the covenant heartbeat of Scripture.
To Abraham, I am with you.
To Jacob, I am with you.
To Moses, I am with you.
To Joshua, I am with you.
To discouraged builders in Jerusalem, I am with you.
And to us in the Great Commission, I am with you.
Christianity is not the promise of a painless life. Jesus calls us to take up our cross. But it is the promise of a never-alone life. For church planters and leaders, this is crucial. If you follow Jesus to get visible results, you will burn out. If you follow Jesus to get Jesus, you will endure. God’s gift to you is not primarily growth, influence, or security. It is His presence.
The question underneath discouragement is often this: Is God enough?
If the church grows slowly, is He enough?
If finances remain tight, is He enough?
If criticism continues, is He enough?
Discouragement often exposes what we were really hoping to get from God. Haggai reminds us that the reward of obedience is not comfort. It is communion.
Promise 2: My Glory Is Ahead of You
God does not stop with presence. He also lifts their eyes to the future.
In Haggai 2:6-9, the Lord declares that the future glory of this house will be far greater than the former. At first glance, that seems impossible. How could this modest rebuild surpass Solomon’s temple?
Jesus answers that question in Matthew 12:6. He says, “Something greater than the temple is here.”
Jesus is the true and greater temple. He is where God’s presence dwells fully. He is the once-for-all sacrifice for sins. He is the final high priest, the true meeting place between us and God.
Through His death and resurrection, He fulfills what Haggai anticipated. And through Christ, something astonishing happens. Believers become living stones in this new temple. The Spirit dwells in us. The church becomes the temple of the living God. That means your obedience today, however small it looks, participates in a story far bigger than you can see right now.
Your sermon preparation in a quiet study … is not wasted.
Your counseling session with a struggling member … is not pointless.
Your prayer meeting with three people … is powerful.
Your faithful parenting … is seen by God.
Florence Chadwick once attempted to swim across the Pacific, from Catalina Island to the California coast. After hours in icy, shark-infested waters, surrounded by fog, she quit. And it wasn’t until she was pulled into the boat that she realized she was less than half a mile away from the California shore. She was half a mile short of finishing a 26-mile swim.
The next day at the press conference, she said:
“All I could see was fog. I think if I could have just seen the shore, I would’ve made it.”
Two months after Chadwick failed her swim, she tried again, on a day no less cold. A day no less foggy. In waters no less icy or shark-infested. Only this time she made it. And when they asked her how she made it this time, she said, “I kept in my mind an image of the shore.”
Haggai 2 gives us the image, the vision, the truth we need.
You may not see the full glory yet. You may not feel the peace yet. But if you are in Christ, you are moving toward a promised future. Discouragement is not proof that you are disqualified. It is often evidence that you are in the work.
So if you are tempted to quit, hear the Word of the Lord: be strong. Do not abandon the work He has given you. The presence of God is with you. The glory of God is ahead of you.
