“Unless the Lord builds the house, they that build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127:1 KJV
“Unless the Lord builds” is a conditional clause. If God doesn’t lay the foundation, if Jesus is not the cornerstone of your life, you’re living on condemned property and one day you will be evicted. Jesus taught a parable about building a foundation on sand in Matthew 7:26: “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” NIV
If you are your own real estate agent, you’d better think again. You may be building on sand. The rains will wash your house away. My father was a contractor by trade. When he retired, he built a home in a new suburban development. My parent’s house was the smallest in the neighborhood. Hotel-like mansions popped up around them shortly after they moved. Each showplace was replete with Porsches, country-club wives and 2.5 preppy children. Two years later, every elegant edifice had John Deere bulldozers hacking giant holes in the front yards. Workmen were shoveling dirt and concrete under cracking foundations as fast as they could. You see, those wealthy buyers looked inside the homes but not underneath them.
My father, on the other hand, knew that the soil in his neighborhood was sandy. Before he laid the foundation for his home, he poured concrete piers 150 feet beneath the foundation of his house. The only upheaval going on in his yard was transplanting gerani- ums.
A mature Christian realizes, like jaded King Solomon, that everything in life is dust—its vanity, it’s vapor. Only the godly man or woman will have deep roots like the righteous person in Psalm1:3: The godly man “will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season. And its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” Lives built-by- God are works in progress. Laying down your life daily to the Master-Contractor is like handing Him the blueprints, and allowing Him to do His work onsite.