You Are Being Built Into Christ's Dwelling Place

Watching a lot of home remodel shows, I get excited to accomplish another remodel in my own house. Notice how I say I and my? The truth is, regardless of the ideas I get I need Danny to complete the tasks for me. I am a good helper, but only he knows the ins and outs of building, remodeling and restoring. He has experience and he is talented in that area. I am talented to look at something and want it done. LOL

As I was pondering the remodeling of my life and my home (both are ongoing) I heard God speak. Our problem comes when we believe four things that are incorrect: We can do it ourselves, It’s easy, It will be cheaper and It doesn’t take much time.

This life of faith is an ongoing remodel. I can tell you for a fact that just when I think my life is at the pinnacle of success in faith God comes in and begins to interfere with things. He looks behind a wall and says the wiring needs redoing. He looks beneath the sink and wants to fix the plumbing. He looks into my heart and says what say we kick it up a notch? He speaks so sweetly that at first I don’t know what He’s doing. Sure I want more love. But that means knocking out the cold love that has tried to settle in the cracks where hurts and indignation have come through. Sure I want more blessings. So He comes in and shakes up the good in order to make way for the godly.

The life of faith is not something we can do ourselves. We did not save ourselves, we cannot keep ourselves and we cannot make ourselves Christlike. The life of faith is not easy – we got saved, piece of cake. But the truth is dying to self is hard and resistant to change. It will be cheaper if we take matters into our own hands and ultimately God will knock that down too – for He wants us never to rely on a house of cards that looks pleasing but in reality has little or no connection to Him.

Mostly this life of faith takes time. It takes a whole lifetime. And if we are serious about it, we will be one step away from a mess on a daily basis. He will interfere, He will knock down, He will build up, He will shatter lies, He will rebuild truth, He will check our foundation, He will woo us to get closer and closer and closer to Him. But eventually, if we persevere in faith, we will one day be just like Him.

Oh beloved, do you feel like things are being torn down, torn away and torn up? Are you wondering what has happened to the happy life you were content with? You can rely on the truth that God will take the mess of your life and make it even more beautiful. He is working behind the scenes to get you closer to Him and to cause you to become more like Him. While the work seems daunting and the task looks formidable, the outcome will be grand! Trust Him in the working – for everything that gets taken away will be replaced with Him! His goal in the process is not to make you look better, but that you will live a stronger, courageous, valiant life for Jesus. Everything in His hands is beautiful workmanship including you!

He loves you and He’s for you and that’s why you can trust Him to remove and replace everything for your good and His glory. Life spent closer and closer to Him is always better and better and better.

James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Isaiah 54:11 O storm-battered city, troubled and desolate! I will rebuild you with precious jewels and make your foundations from lapis lazuli.

Romans 8:27-28 And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will. We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. Amplified

Ephesians 2:22 …in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.