A Time to Build
Ray’s Wednesday night lesson last night got me to thinking about building. Ecclesiastes 3 teaches us that:
There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time
for every event under heaven—
Ecclesiastes 3:1
A couple of verses later we learn that there is:
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
Ecclesiastes 3:3
I believe that an important task we all can do right now is to build up — one another. Many of us have more time with the people we live with than we usually do. What a good time it is to build them up. The verses that came to mind first last night were the one above in Ecclesiastes 3 and this one in 1 Thessalonians:
Therefore encourage one another
and build up one another,
just as you also are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11
I think there are probably many, many people we know who could use a good dose of encouragement and building up right now. Some of them are probably in our very own houses.
When I searched for other passages about building last night, I found this one:
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.
Psalm 127:3
We are important helpers when it comes to building our homes, but without the Lord our building is in vain. Jesus’ words about building houses and people is a great comfort. As we spend more time than usual with the people in our houses, and as we think about the people whose houses are lonely, let’s get out our “building up” tool kits and remember that now is a time to build.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine
and acts on them,
may be compared to a wise man
who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew
and slammed against that house;
and yet it did not fall,
for it had been founded on the rock.”
Matthew 5:24