Hello, my friends. I'd like to share some of what the Lord has been putting on my heart. I pray this helps to bring encouragement to anyone who may be having to rebuild in any area of their life.
I was reading in Ezra this morning. Here's a picture of what I read: God's people were in exile, previously having been taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar. King Cyrus of Persia had conquered Babylon and in his first year of rein there, he sent out a proclamation allowing the Israelites to return to their homeland to rebuild the house of the Lord.
In Chapter Three, the Israelites were gathered together in Jerusalem, which was in ruins, having been destroyed. The people had given according to their ability to the work of rebuilding. The very first thing they did once the people gave was to build the altar of the Lord. They offered up burnt offerings to the Lord, morning and evening. They celebrated the appointed festivals of the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord had not yet been laid. The temple was still in ruins.
Have you ever been in a place where you were just devastated? Maybe a loss of a relationship, financial difficulties, sickness & disease, etc... I remember when the floor was swept out from under my feet. Everything I had built my life around for 29 years had shifted in a moment! While trying to make sense of it all, I began to reevaluate each area of my life. I asked the Lord to search my heart. Even though what happened was not my fault, I asked, "Lord, is there anything in me that was an open door to these things in my life?" He is so gracious! He showed me that I had a faulty foundation. I was raised in an environment of control and manipulation and so when it came to relationships, that was all I knew. I didn't recognize when I was being controlled or manipulated by others. I hadn't experienced healthy relationships and so I didn't always recognize the signs of unhealthy people. I learned by example, to be passive and do whatever it took to keep the peace. I had a faulty foundation and unfortunately, so did the adults in my life. If I had recognized the signs of control, manipulation, and abuse of authority and had the confidence and courage to confront it, my family and I would have been spared a lot of pain and trauma. But God is so good. What looked like devastation became our deliverance. When your life feels like it is in ruins, remember that the Lord is in the business of rebuilding and restoring! Allowing the old to be dismantled to make room for the new can be very painful. The season between the two is usually uncomfortable. Part of the dismantling in my life meant breaking personal vows and agreements with patterns and mindsets that I had learned. Part of rebuilding is allowing my mind to be renewed by the word of God.
Of course, we know the foundation of the Temple of God was not faulty when it was built. But, the temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar. In Ezra chapter 3, the foundation lies in ruins and the temple of God needs to be rebuilt. That is kind of how my life felt. My foundation was swept away and my life was in ruins. What was the first thing the Israelites did? They built the altar so they could offer sacrifices and keep the feasts of the Lord. The rebuilding began in the second year of their arrival to Jerusalem so there was a season of bringing their sacrifices and keeping the Lord's feasts, even before restoration began. But when they began to work, the priests sang responsively praising, God and giving thanks to the LORD, saying "For He is good, for His mercy endures forever." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they (the priests) praised the Lord because the foundation of the house was laid before their eyes. The rest of the temple wasn't even built yet!
It says that many priests and many of the old men who had seen the old temple before its destruction, wept with a loud voice when this foundation was laid. When I first read this I thought the weeping must have been tears of joy. I looked it up and in the Hebrew language that is not what it means at all. The word wept in that passage means to bemoan, to complain. Not everyone is going to be on board when the Lord rebuilds your life. We can't let the complaining or disapproval of others silence our joy! We also must be careful that we don't look back and do the same as these men when the Lord is rebuilding our lives. It's so easy to look back and long for what was or what could have been. Starting over, especially having to rebuild everything, to start all over, can be difficult and scary. The men of old wept at the same time the others were shouting aloud for joy, so much so, the scripture says the people could not distinguish the sound of weeping for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard from far away! We need to be like the men who shouted for joy, not because of our circumstances or anything we can do about them, but because of who our God is!
We have all been held captive by something at some time in our lives. Some of us longer or by more things than others. I have been held captive by fear, loneliness, rejection, and by the fear of and opinions of man. But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and restore us to the Father. The King of all Kings has issued a decree: It is finished! By the blood of the Lamb, we are set free. Now, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Not only are we the temple, we are kings and priests unto God. (Revelation 1:6). Notice they built the altar and worshipped and praised God while the old foundation still lie in ruins. They kept the feasts of the Lord and sacrificed even before the new foundation was laid.
Some of us may have let go of some old faulty foundations. I am having to let go of some both generationally and spiritually. The process of letting go can be painful. We may weep, much like the men in Ezra 3 wept when they saw the new foundation laid because they had seen the beauty of what was. Having your world swept out from under your feet is extremely unsettling. It can cause you to feel disoriented. But sometimes we have to be unsettled before we can be firmly established. That has been my prayer: "Lord, establish me". I had allowed others to build my life but only that which the Lord builds will withstand. He is the builder. Christ is our firm foundation. Every other foundation is sinking sand. It will not last. While the enemy comes to destroy, the Lord will allow those faulty foundations to be exposed and destroyed so that He can have something new to build upon. You can't build on an unstable or faulty foundation. You can try but what is built is not going to withstand the storms when they come. (See Matthew 7:24)
If we have faith and are faithful to heed His voice, He will establish us and rebuild our lives but we must learn to praise through the pain. In faith, no matter how we feel or what it looks like, we must have this truth firmly established in our hearts, just like the Israelites did when the foundation of the temple was laid: "He is good and His mercy endures forever." Because we know this truth, we can praise Him through anything.
He will complete the work He began in me and He will complete the work He began in you! We don't need to strive or try to figure it all out. I like to try to figure it out. We need to trust, with child-like faith. To be honest, I prefer to have some degree of control, and even though my feet still feel wobbly while my foundation is being rebuilt, I am choosing to praise Him through the pain. That is the key: going through. We aren't going to camp there in the desolate places. I am not going to wait until I see the next chapter before I praise Him for His goodness and mercy. The Lord reminded me of the scripture, "Why sit here until you die?" (See 2 Kings 7). I had been acting as though I was a leper even though the situation wasn't caused by me. I had to make the decision, right here, right now, where my life feels like it is in ruins, I am going to praise Him and declare His goodness and mercy! Because I believe, I know I will see. How about you? Will you believe?
I know He is building a new foundation in my life. He can do the same for you if you happen to find yourself in that place. What do we do when we're in this uncomfortable place? We build an altar of worship around our life. I can embrace who God is in my life right now and what He's already done. Right now, there may be much that doesn't look pretty. I have days where I feel like I am a mess. But there's always a mess before the message! A test before the testimony! I know He is rebuilding the ruins. He's rebuilding the places of desolation in my life. And what He does for me, He can do for anyone who cries out to Him and believes. Will you let Him build? Will you build an altar of worship where His presence can come and rest upon your life? Will you let Christ be your firm foundation, the rock on which you stand? Maybe you feel like I have at times, "Lord, I have nothing to bring. I am empty. I have nothing to give." That's when lay yourself on the altar. The word altar in Ezra 3 comes from a root word that means to slaughter, to kill. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. He bore the punishment for our sins. When a sacrifice is made, something dies. -I love how the New Living Translations says it: My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20. Hebrews 12:28-28 Therefore, since we received a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, and offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is [indeed] a consuming fire.
The Lord spoke the following to my heart and if it resonates with you, it's for you too! Straight from my journal: It's time. Praise me through the pain. Praise me in the brokenness. Praise me when everything in your life feels shaky because I am your true foundation. Rebuilding doesn't happen overnight but the first step is to come and lay it all on the altar. Build an altar of worship where my presence can come and rest upon your life. Give it all to me because this, how you feel right now, is not who you are. Praise me through the pain. When something is being rebuilt, it doesn't look spectacular. It looks misshapen and incomplete in the process. It may feel incomplete because I am rebuilding, I'm not finished yet. Trust me, lean on me, bring it all to me, even that which feels incomplete or lacking and I will bring it to completion.
Isaiah 61:3-4 To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory. They will rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities destroyed long ago.
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