ARE YOU BUILDING AND LIVING IN VAIN?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for He grants sleep to those He loves.

Psalm 127:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As you grow each day in life, our scripture passage today would ask one important question: Who is building you? Who are you allowing to develop you each and every day?

The answer to the question is critical. Look at the words from the psalmist in the opening verses of the 127th Psalm:

Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for He grants sleep to those He loves.

So again, if you look at your life as a structure, constructed day-by-day as you grow and mature, who is building you up?

If the answer is anything except the Lord, then the building efforts are futile and done in vain.

Trying to be the master of our own personal construction project is a worthless endeavor, a waste of time. Ditto for any time we turn our life over to another human being, allowing them to construct who we are and who we’ll become.

God’s word is truth and His word tells us that unless the Lord builds us, we are built in vain. Jesus had a little more to say on this subject as He expounded on the parable during His Sermon on the Mount. Here’s what our Savior had to say:

 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the Rock.  But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27

Jesus would ask us, “Where have you built yourself?” Have you built yourself on My solid foundation, I who am the Stone the builders rejected that became the Cornerstone (Acts 4:11)? Or have you foolishly built yourself elsewhere, on sand that will give way and collapse when up against the storms of life?

So the question repeats itself: Are you living and building in vain?

The answer to that question impacts everything connected to your life to include your safety and your productivity. Living and building in vain places all aspects of your life at risk of being likewise in vain. Two examples of this are provided in the psalm:

1. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.

Relying on yourself, a guard, or a security system for protection? If so, you are living in false security. For as the scripture clearly states, only the Lord can offer us reliable, unfailing safety and sanctuary from life’s dangers. Trusting in anything else is trusting in vain.

2. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for He grants sleep to those He loves.

How many people work and work and work and work to the point of exhaustion, all just to try and build success or wealth? Is this really productive?

The scriptures would warn us against such efforts and tell us that we rise early and go to bed late in vain if we’re trying to produce a harvest on our own merit. For God’s word assures us that every good and perfect thing we receive comes not from our own efforts but rather from the blessing of God who grants what we have from above (James 1:17). The psalmist frames the discussion around food but the word here equally applies to everything we strive for.

And note how sleep is brought into the equation. If we are toiling all day to try and achieve a life’s harvest based on our own volition then we so often forego rest, much needed rest that the Lord is ready to grant us. For how productive can we truly be for the Lord if we are exhausted after obsessively pursuing all that life offers? He wants us to be refreshed and focused fully on Him, His will, and His way.

Friends, this scripture challenges us. It challenges us to assess our lives and see if we’re truly placing all our hope and trust in the Lord to build us up and guide us to His true harvest, a full reaping of His fruits of the Spirit.

Are you building and living in vain?

If so, I hope you’ll consider a change of address and move onto the Rock who is our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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