Devo: "Demolition Zone?"
Demolition Zone?
“But My people did not listen to My voice, And Israel did not obey Me. “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk in their own devices. “Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways! “I would quickly subdue their enemies And turn My hand against their adversaries.” (Ps. 81:11–14)
I have a good friend, who does construction. In his career, he has done a lot of a remodeling of existing structures. Many times, before he can remodel the structure, he has to dismantle parts or all of the existing structure. God is at work in and around us, remodeling our lives. Many times, existing structures that we have placed in our lives have to be removed before new things can be added to our lives.
When my friend would do a remodel, he would do the demolition. God is different than my friend, in that God does not take things from us. He is not the destroyer; Satan is the destroyer (John 10:10). He does not remove things that we have added. He will not violate our authority. He is a giver, not a taker (James 1:16-17). If we have added things to our lives that are not God, those things will bring forms of death. God is not the initiator of death. He is the giver of life (John 10:10).
Colossians 1:17 tells us, “In Him (Jesus) all things hold together.” Jesus is the one who God the Father has designed in creation to hold everything together. The simple deduction is, “If Jesus is not holding it together, it will fall apart!” I have heard people tell me that Jesus took a relationship from them. In response, I asked them, “Was Jesus holding that relationship together?” They would tell me in various forms of speech, “No”. I would declare to them, “If Jesus was not holding it together, it was eventually going to fall apart.” I would go on to say, “If you did not allow Jesus to hold it together, why would you blame Him for causing it to fall apart?”
If we set our minds on the flesh or sow flesh into our lives, it will bring forms of death into our lives (Romans 8:6, Galatians 6:7-9). We cannot blame God for the forms of death, that we have sown into lives.
The Psalmist tells us, “Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.” (Psalm 127:1–2) If the Lord is not building the house, the effort will lead to frustration. The structure will self-destruct. The Lord warns us about eating the fruit of painful labors. One of the most important truths in this passage, is that the Lord gives to His beloved in our sleep or rest. Striving to make things happen is a signal that it is not the Lord, who is doing the building. If the Lord is not doing the building, self-demolition will occur. Do not blame God for things falling apart.
Many times, we spend our time, trying to hold things together that are falling apart, because we are the ones who built it. If the Lord builds something, He holds it together. One of the hardest things we have to do, is turn loose of the things that God did not build or bring into our lives. Ask the Lord, if the thing you are holding onto is something that is not from Him. If there is, this may be the time for you to repent and turn loose of the things that you have been holding onto.
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7–8)