Jesus: The Master Builder of Our Lives

Good news: God doesn’t need our help! He is perfectly capable of accomplishing every good thing without us. In fact, He already has. His cry on the cross of “It is finished” is proof. After all, His works were finished before the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3)

However, He does require our obedience. Certain things will not manifest on the earth without us cooperating with the Holy Spirit. Yet, human tendency is to learn what He wants us to do and then try to fulfill it in our own strength and understanding.

God’s promises are Yes and Amen through Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20), but we must be led by His Spirit in how He chooses to bring them to pass.

Consider King David and his son Solomon. While David wrote many of the Psalms, Psalm 127 was written by Solomon. He witnessed firsthand as David wanted to be the one to build the temple in Jerusalem for the Lord. However, God spoke to David that Solomon was the one He had chosen to build it. (1 Kings 8:17-19) David accepted God’s choice and spent years laying out plans and collecting the resources to make it easier for Solomon. It would have been foolish for David to disobey and spend countless hours having a temple built. God didn’t need David’s help in building a temple for Him. David and Solomon had to follow God’s orders for the Lord to make it the place of His dwelling.

King Solomon rightly decreed in Psalm 127:1-2 (NIV):

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Am I the only one who has ever tried to build things that the Lord wasn’t blessing? Or try to carry out His plans in my own strength? There’s a better way, and that is abiding in Him. When we labor outside of His grace, we’re unconsciously saying that we can do a better job building our lives than He can. There’s a reason Jesus was a carpenter while He was on the earth!

May you be renewed today in the knowledge that God is carrying out to completion the work that He has begun in you. (Philippians 1:6) As His son or daughter, you are very precious to Him and He is the Master Builder. He requires our obedience, but He doesn’t need our help!

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Scripture is quoted from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION^®, NIV^® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.^® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.