Except the LORD Build the House…

Praise the Lord! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. This week has been full of amazing services for our church. We had a beautiful prayer meeting on Tuesday night, then the Holy Ghost fell during our Wednesday midweek service, and again last night during communion. God is so good, and I am so grateful for what He is doing in the church right now. Also the Sorahs are going to be with us in service tomorrow so I am looking forward to seeing them again 🙂 If you have not read the Pillar Series blog with the Sorahs yet, I would encourage you to do so!

I just wanted to share a small thought. I was reading 2 Chronicles chapter 14 and I came across verse 7,

"Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us; 
because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. 
So they built and prospered." 

“So they built and prospered,” I love that part of the verse! The Bible not only says that the Lord gave Judah rest and allowed them to build, but they PROSPERED while doing it. It’s one thing to build, but it’s an entirely different thing to build AND prosper. For some context behind verse seven, in 2 Chronicles 14 the Bible says that Asa, who was Solomon’s great grandson and king of Judah, did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. I am paraphrasing but it goes on to say that Asa removed the altars and idols of the false gods and he commanded Judah to seek the God of their fathers. THEN, Judah had rest on every side and they “built and prospered.”

Now the Bible also gives us many examples of what happens when we build without seeking God. We can see one such example in Genesis, with the building of the Tower of Babel. The scripture says in Genesis 11:4-8,

"And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; 
and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, 
that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Verse eight ends with, “and they left off to build the city,” meaning they stopped building. Why? Because they did not have God’s blessing, they did not seek the Lord, therefore they did not prosper.

This made me think of Psalm 127:1,

"Except the LORD build the house, They labour in vain that build it: Except the LORD keep the city, 
The watchman waketh but in vain."

There is so much packed in this scripture. Without God’s blessing and direction, we are labouring in vain! Are we allowing the Lord to build our families, our homes, our businesses? Are we making decisions with God at the center? Because we know that if we try to build ourselves, we are labouring in vain and we will not prosper. We can do all of the planning and preparing we want, but if God is not involved, then all of our work is for nothing. We cannot do it all ourselves but we need the Lord’s help and provision. Scripture shows time and time again those who build their marriages, their families, their ministries with God’s blessing and approval will prosper. Except the Lord build the house…

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend! Let’s not labour in vain. Thank you for reading and God bless you! 🙂