Throughout my life I've had the opportunity to look at a lot of houses. Phillip and I have had to move quite a few times in our 15 years of marriage and I've also done some househunting with friends over the years. I have seen incredibly well built houses. Houses with firm foundations, solid infrastructures, well planned out living space, well thought through storage space, intricate detailed trim work, immaculate yards, and containing the latest kitchen appliances. Sweet - well built - houses. Houses that I'd LOVE to live in.
I've also looked at some real humdingers. Dumps you might call them. During our search for seminary housing we looked at houses with sagging roofs, rotting wood, peeling paint, falty foundations, unplanned entrances to basements (ie. massive holes in the floor) leaky pipes, crooked doorways, and weed filled lots.
Some houses are well built and well maintained. Some houses are not.
In similar fashion, some homes are well built and well maintatined. Some are not.
Solomon, in his psalm, tells us the secret to a truly well built house/home. The secret is in the Builder. The security is in the Sustainer.
Do you want a well built house? Do you want a well built family? Then you want God as your architect!! "We must depend on God's blessing and not our own contrivance for the raising of a family" (Matthew Henry).
Don't labor in vain trying to create a faithful family - leave it to God to design the blueprints and then follow them! Who is the builder of our homes? What architect are we relying upon? Are we living in a strong and solid site built structure or in a massively manufactured man made mess?
"Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain."
The grand Architect and omnipotent Watchman is also a benevolent Benefactor. He gives to His people. He gives to those who live in His houses, who rely upon His rule, and who rest in His security.
A home built on Christ, a home guarded by God is a home full of rest and peace and blessing. Knowing that our homes are well-built and well-protected we can sleep soundly knowing that even while our eyes are closed and our minds are dull that our gracious God is still meeting our every need - perfectly - abundantly - continually. Oh - the rest of the righteous is sweet!
"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate."
"Children are a heritage and a reward and are so to be acccounted as blessings and not as burdens, for He that sends the mouths will send the meat if we trust in Him. Children are a heritage FOR the Lord as well as a gift FROM Him. The family that has a large stock of them is like a quiver full of arrows, of different sizes we may suppose, but all of use at one time or another; children of different capacities and inclinations."
I for one am thankful this day for a well built house. It is not a perfect house, it is full of sinners (mainly full of me!) - but it is a secure and settled house becaue it's architect and wathman is Christ! It is built on a solid rock and all of the rains of this life shall not sink it. (Matthew 7:24-27)
God has indeed built and is still building our home. It is He who heads it up. It is He who keeps it going. It is He who loves and leads and guides and guards us. While my quiver has only two arrows - and two incredibly different arrows - they are the arrows He has given and they are the arrows that I entrust to Him to use as He would most see fit.
I am a well blessed woman in a well built house and I am grateful beyond measure!!
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