“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.”

Immediately and thankfully I must give all praise and honor to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the divine caption printed under the picture above.  The Holy Spirit inspired King Solomon (the wise son of King David) to write it in Psalm 127:1a.

Not only is the theme expressed in these words timeless, but you can substitute the word “house” to represent any circumstance or situation that may present itself in your daily life, especially if that need requires scrutiny.  For if you don’t ‘count the cost’ prior to executing your plans, you might find out later (much too late) that you do not have all the resources, knowledge or fortitude to finish it.

In my early adolescence years, I was guilty of not stopping to consider all or most of all the ramifications of my (not-so-well-thought-out) decisions.  For example, just to list a few: my decision to pursue or not to pursue a higher education, my decision on matrimony, my decision to establish credit by purchasing a car, my decision to engage in meaningful employment without appropriate credentials, my rush to assimilate into society (deaf, dumb and blind) completely unshackled or unrestrained.

In my senior years of life, I can now look back over those years and see just how foolish, senseless, inconvenient and irresponsible many of my decisions were.  Not only for myself, but for all those people in my sphere of influence.  (OH, how often I have prayed for God’s forgiveness for my faithless years.)

I had put the cart before the horse!  During all those years, I had imagined the expression ‘count the cost’,  was an indictment that was proclaimed after the fact…’You should have counted the cost before you had gotten in so deep.” 

WHAT A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!

But not so with God.  His definition was right on target!  Actually, the true proverbial explanation for ‘count the cost’ means making plans prior to executing any life decisions; for planning is biblical in order to avoid dangers and snares cooked up by the devil.  For it is written in Proverbs that those who plan well will be able to foresee dangers in advance and will avoid them, but those who are foolish and doesn’t plan will rush ahead and do whatever is convenient, and end up paying the penalty.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER IS SIMPLY THIS:

Unless the Lord is your architect, actively engaged in orchestrating (drawing up the blueprints) the construction of the ‘House Plans’, you will be laboring in vain.  The Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the laborer (you) must be in sync.  Which brings me to my last biblical scripture for this blog post:

A House Divided Cannot Stand!

Scripture Lesson: “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand in guard in vain.”  Psalm 127:1  Amen and Amen!

My Epitaph:  My prayer is simply this:   “Thank you Lord God for putting a ‘period’ on my life exploits without You and allowing me to enter into a new life relationship with You before it was everlasting too late.” Amen

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