Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it. (Psalm 12:1 KJV)
The Lord told a story about a wise builder and a foolish builder. The wise builder built his house on rock, and despite many storms that assailed the building, it stood firm because of its firm foundation. The foolish builder on the other hand built on sand. It was probably easier to build, but as soon as the storm arrived, his house collapsed. Why? It had no foundation.
Today we only need to glance around to see the collapse of the family structure. Marriages are falling apart. Divorce is all too easy. Children grow up in single-parent homes, or worse, with no parents at all. The homes have been built on sand. They have no foundation.
Is there such a thing as a perfect family? If there is, I haven't come across it, and it certainly doesn't include mine. We built our home on The Rock of Jesus Christ. Our three children were taught to love and honour Him, and today their own homes are being built on that same solid foundation. But that certainly doesn't mean our homes were fault free. We arrived where we did through the Grace of God, and through no credit of our own.
I learned recently that the word in the text above that is translated "build" can also mean "repair". Isn't that encouraging? Sometimes our homes are in desperate need of repair, or ours certainly have been, but if you're building on Christ, that's His job. He was a carpenter after all.
Perhaps your home right now is in need of repair. Maybe your family is unstable, and perhaps you even feel like it's too late. Maybe you have already gone through divorce, and your children are grown and living distant from the Lord.
It's never too late. Except the LORD build the house . . . Do you still have a family? Then ask God to remodel it . . . and to begin with you. Don't go out and try to change the other members of the family. Trust God to do that. You concentrate on moving yourself from the shifting sand and relocating to The Rock, and let Him do the rest.
Make no mistake. The storms will come. In Luke 6 Christ didn't say if the floods come but when. But Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal (Isaiah 26:4).
PRAYER: Lord, I place my home and family now firmly on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. Help me to trust you to do the building.
THIS WEEK:Watch out for times when you try and get in the way of the building operations, and hand them back over to the Lord.
SHIRLEY CORDER lives on the coast in South Africa with her husband, Rob. Her book, Strength Renewed: Meditations for your Journey through Breast Cancer contains 90 meditations based on her time in the cancer valley.
Please visit Shirley through ShirleyCorder.com, where she encourages writers, or at RiseAndSoar.com, where she encourages those in the cancer valley. You can also meet with her on Twitter or FaceBook.
"Then ask God to remodel it . . . and to begin with you." I love that, Shirley. Too often, I'm asking God to change the situation or the other person, but we need just as much work as well. Thank you for this. It's always encouraging to read about the Master Builder and know that He can repair any mess we make.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Leila. You're right. It's easy to ask Him to work in other people's lives and forget we need remodeling too!
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