Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. – Psalm 127:1
For the last several years, I have been a gutter man by trade. I have had the opportunity to work on thousands of homes, and have seen some terrible workmanship along the way. On a few houses, the builders tried to make an imitation foundation—they just set up some cinder blocks, threw in a little mortar, and tried to set a house on top. The instability that results can do a lot of damage to a home. Some of those houses had settled so deep that I could not even get a little twenty-foot gutter to drain.
Another house I saw had an old foundation made with low-quality mortar that was cracking and falling apart. In that condition, the house was not worth very much, and I wondered how much more it would have taken to have built it right. Would it really have been that difficult? How much more trouble could it have been to ensure the house would stay standing?
At one house I worked on, the owner said he had to replace the foundation after he bought the home. He had to jack up the whole house, dig out the old foundation, and then pour a new one underneath. I thought, How much easier would it have been to just do it right the first time?
A lot of people seem to think they can do whatever they want in life with no negative consequences. They think they are in control of their lives, and that they can build their families, their businesses and careers, and every other part of their lives just the way they want them. But our focus verse reminds us that “except the Lord build the house,” it will fall apart. Every choice we make must be based on God’s principles; otherwise we cannot expect to see His blessing upon us, and our labor will surely be in vain. God has established guidelines for building, and there is no way to cut corners in the process.
We need to trust in the Lord. If we allow Him to have His way in our lives, He will set us on the True Foundation—Jesus Christ—and we will be able to stand firm. It only takes a little extra effort now to make sure the Lord is leading our lives, and it will pay off tremendously in the long run!