Buying what we could afford, Marcia and I have added on to most of our houses to meet the needs of our growing family. Working together, we saved a lot of money (that we didn’t have anyway) and board by board, wall by wall, planned and constructed improved dwellings. Likely, you too have been involved in some sort of construction project, building either a dwelling, your career, your family, or planning for your goals and ambitions.

 

The purpose of all of these, you think, is to serve you and your family. But how many times have these plans and ‘construction’ projects taken a life of their own? Instead of you planning them, it turns out that they tend to control you and lead you down a path distanced from where you intended?

 

“For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Hebrews 3:4

 

I know there have been times I have been so intent on my plans to build my life with my own strategies that I have forgotten to consult God about them. You too? Tied up with planning, even in trying to be a good steward, it’s easy to forget to turn the development plans over to the one who knows best how to build our lives.  Sure, we are responsible for our lives, but the one who has the best design for us is in fact, the builder of everything.

 

How much are you trying to control in the name of responsibility, prudence, or stewardship and what building plans do you need to turn over to the chief architect of your life? Is it your pursuit of financial independence, the chase after ‘bigger and better’, or controlling relationships, and the tendency to believe lies that undermine and eat away at everything you build? When you look at your faith, is it built on the hopes that good works will save you or on the firm foundation that Jesus laid for you, paid in full by His grace and mercy?

 

Every day, we find ourselves building our lives and our faith. What are you building today? Make sure to have quality materials and the design that is intentionally created to bring peace, love, joy, and the honor that comes to every good builder.