Friday... So who gets the credit?

Psalm 127:1 (NLT), "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good."

Friday... So who gets the credit?

We do so much and we need the credit. It seems that our worth is attached to what we do. But Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived says in Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good."

Yes, he understood this. Now we give him credit for building the first Temple of God. It took seven year for it to be built and it happened during his reign over Israel. Now his father, King David wanted to be the one to build the first Temple but because he was a man of war God didn't allow him to build it and he was a man after God's own heart. He was a great King, the second King of Israel and it seems that he should have been the one to build it, but he didn't.

Now it is so important in our lives with our abilities, with our great intelligence that the Lord is in charge and unless he does it then our work is wasted. Yes, Solomon knew this to be true. God writes this through him for us to see and understand that, "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted." and "Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good."

Now God created each one of us with a purpose. Rick Warren says that God created our Shape for his purpose. Here is what it means: S is Spiritual gifts, H is Heart, A is Abilities, P is Personality and E is Experience. And he has put all of those together to make us for a purpose.

Now another way to say Psalm 1 is, unless we seek God for how he has built us then our life is a waste. He has created each one of us for a purpose and we need to go to him and find out our purpose. We need to find what our Spiritual gifts are that God gave us when we accepted him into our life. We need to know what we really love to do, that is Heart. And then knowing our Personality is so very important. There are tests that tell us that. And Experience, what we have gone through in our lives is important in finding what God has Shaped us to do.

"Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted." Yes, God has a plan for our life and it just takes some seeking through prayer, through meditating on and reading the Bible, spending time with Godly people and asking them what they see in us and then seeking through quality time with God's Spirit what our Shape really is. And don't forget to really think about your experiences, the good and bad. Yes, David wanted to built the Temple but he was a warrior and his experiences made him a great writer of the Psalms.

Now in whatever we do, who gets the credit? Of course, God does. He is the one who shaped us and who is the one with a plan and he is the one who sent his son to die for us, to save us. And he is also the one for sure that we do whatever we do. "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good." He does it all through us and he gets the credit.

And also verse 2 (AMP) says, "It is vain for you to rise early, to retire late, to eat bread of anxious labors - for He gives [blessings] to His beloved even in his sleep." He wants to do life through us. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit?

Nehemiah 6:16b (NLT), "They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Tuesday... I wonder what would happen if we didn't take the credit? Over in the Old Testament in the book of Nehemiah it tells of a major task that through the leadership of Nehemiah was accomplished. The walls of Jerusalem had been torn down and God had laid it on Nehemiah to build those walls back up. It was definitely an almost impossible task but Nehemiah 6:15-16 says, "So on October 2 the wall was finished - just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God." Now, we so many times want to take credit for doing the impossible. It would make such a difference for us. But I wonder what would happen through us if God got the credit? Psalm 96 tells us what we are to do. Verses 2-3 says, "Sing to the LORD; praise his name. ...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Thursday... Yet, now this is true.

Colossians 1:22a (NLT), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body." Thursday... Yet, now this is true. Now Paul a prisoner in Rome is writing a letter to a church in Colossae. And in Colossians 1:21 (MSG) he says, "Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds" The NLT says "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated by your evil thoughts and actions." And that is where so many in this world live today. They are blowing it and they don't know what to do. Yes, they are hostile in their minds and they are engaging in evil deeds but there is Good News. Now Paul in verses 19-20 sets the stage for an answer to those who don't want to live that way. He says, "For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth b...

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