David understood the power of God to affect change in the lives of the people of Israel. He knew that he needed to have God on his side if he was going to hold off the enemies of Israel. Do we understand that power today? I mean God says that he wants to do great and mighty things in our lives, changing and shaping us till we are perfect and complete and lacking nothing (James 1:4), that we are the very craftsmanship of the hand of God (Eph 2:10). He said that through the work of the Spirit of God we would be perfect because of Him. (Math 5:48)
One of my favorite authors compared the growth in the Christian life to that of a house or building.
Okay, Imagine that I had a dripping faucet, or a squeaky floor or a leaky roof, and hired a guy to come out and fix it. The guy shows up at eight on the dot and I leave him at my house and go off to do errands or go to work or school or whatever. Imagine my surprise when I turn into my driveway, pull back up to my house a few hours later and find absolute pandemonium. The front lawn: covered with stacks 2x4s and plywood. Pallets of concrete bags are sitting in the drive way and where the roof used to be now stands the skeleton of framing that was once hidden. My Eyes wide and mouth slightly agape, I walk through the front door, which has been painted in a fresh coat of green rather than the blue that it had been a few hours ago, to the bustling of activity. One guy seems to be tearing out sheetrock with the back of a claw hammer while another is busily running electrical cabling through the hall and still another is moving all my furniture into the back yard where there is a backhoe digging a large hole in the ground. What the heck is going on?!?! I start frantically looking around for the guy that I had hired to do the work this morning. I bound up the staircase (wait a minute, I dont remember stairs here, I dont even have a second story!) that opens up onto the remnants of the roof where I find the original contractor, sledgehammer in hand, poised to swing. The slow motion kicked in as I ran in front of him and yelled NOOO!!!!! WAAIIITTT!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Startled he looks up and says what are you doing? W-What am I doing? The nerve of this guy. What am I doing? I only asked you here to fix the little things, the faucet and the squeaky floor that would have been good enough for me. But he said to me, I know but I am making it perfect.
And what if I told you that you and I are this house and the impertinent handyman was Jesus. Most of us invited Jesus in at some point to fix some leaky faucet of sin in our lives. Being angry, lust, disobeying parents, but we soon found that He wasnt satisfied in fixing only those things but moved on to fixing self-centeredness, vain thoughts, and hurtful ways. Jesus says, be perfect (math 5:48) this is my house an Im coming to live in it (1 Cor 3:16) that he is the foundation for the building of our lives on Himself (1 Cor 3:11) and that he is the only foundation that will stand the test of trials (Math 7:25)
Cs Lewis says this in Mere Christianity from the voice of Jesus
Make no mistake, if you let me, I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in my hands that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose you can push me away. But if you do not push me away then understand that I will see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs me I will never rest nor let you rest until you are literally perfect- until my father can say without reservation that He is well pleased with you as he said he was well pleased with me. This I can do and will do. But I will not do anything less.
But we are still all works in progress. I dont know about you guys, but I need a sign that says Under construction, sorry for the mess I may not have flipped anybody off on the free way lately but it hasnt stopped me from wanting to. I dont struggle with looking at girls on the Internet but I still have struggles with seeing them as my sisters, daughters of the Living God. I cant remember the last person that I cussed at, though there was this door where my key wouldnt work. Still under construction, sorry about the mess. But still moving forward.
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