"Except the LORD build the house..."

I know that all of my posts lately have been centered around Scripture, and while I was not trying to do that, I make no apology for it either! What better thing could I be meditating on? I don’t know what I would do without the “more sure word” to help me through each day.

Today is no exception. I have been reading through the book “Passion and Purity” by Elizabeth Elliot as an addition to my devotions each morning. What a challenge, conviction, encouragement, and comfort this book has been. I read it two years ago for a class, and while I read it with interest, I have to admit that I did not digest it as I should have. I missed many, many lessons that book has to teach that I greatly could have used at that point of my life.

So with that book in the back of my mind, I was reading in Psalms today, and I came across this verse:

“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it:”

Psalm 127a

I got to thinking about this verse. I don’t know about you, but whenever I read this verse before, I always applied it something like this: The Lord must be the Head of every family, and everything thats done within a family should be striving to obey Him and be like Him. That house must be focused around Christ. I think that this application is true, but today I saw it differently. I focused more on the word build.

I thought about building something, say with building blocks. You usually start with one larger block that will hold up the rest of your structure. This block could represent the Lord as being the foundation, the One on Whom we build everything else. He is a sure foundation for this structure we are to build.

The next blocks need to be the husband and wife, since they are pretty key to building a house. :) But wait...the verse says the LORD builds the house...not the husband, not even the husband/wife team can do it. The LORD must do it, which means He is the One who will determine who this house is to contain. If the man decides to take this matter into his own hands of who he is going to pick to build this house, the verse says he is labouring in vain. God must pick his wife for him in order to build this house. If the woman (heaven forbid!) decides she is going to pick her partner for this house, she also is working in vain. Only the LORD can do this choosing, no one else.

Lets continue this logic and think about the children for this house. I’ll not get into this much,

because I am sure there are a lot of varying opinions out there. :) It is something to think

about, though: if the LORD is building this house, don’t you think He has the power to control how many children are in this house? Beyond that, think about the homes with children with learning disabilities or mental handicaps. The LORD built this home, so these children also were right in his blueprint...it didn’t surprise Him.

The next step of this home is the friends we make and the people we

invite into this home. Yes, the LORD wants to build this part of our home as well. He knows the influences we should have on our lives, and He also knows those people that need our Godly influence. He knows when a friend moves away and He can send a new friend our way in return. Such has been the case in my life recently...my friends and I scattered hither and yon when we graduated, but the LORD sent another lady into my life when I wasn’t even looking for it.

Lastly, lets add our hobbies, jobs, sports, interests, and anything else that builds a home and consumes some of our energy. Each of these things is needful and important, and the LORD wants to help us enjoy these things while keeping each in its proper place. The LORD knows how much we can take of these outside events, and He has given us a perfect little word to help us in this area: the word NO! Yes, the LORD is very interested in this aspect of our lives as well and will send us opportunities through these things to be a witness for Him.

Well, despite my crude drawing, I hope that you get the picture I see in my mind and have tried to convey. The bottom line is, every aspect of my life is important to God, and He wants to be the one to build and construct it all. If I just hand the reigns over to Him, He can do exceedingly abundantly above what I could ask or think, and I praise Him for that!