What are your pillars?

One of the benefits of living in England is that we have the opportunity to fly for a fair price around the EU. Joey's grandma is visiting relatives in Italy for the month of Aug. and Joey thought it would be special to take Maddie and go visit. It was a very special trip for it allowed one on one time with grandma and established connections with distant relations in Italy as well.

During the trip, Joey and Grandma Connie took the train into Rome where they spent the day admiring the city and its sights.
Now if any of you know my Joey well you would know that he is obsessed with pillars. I know it seems strange when you first hear it, but there is something very significant and cool about his fascination with them.

I have been reading through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the last week or so and am so blessed by the lives of these men. They both had a burden to lead the people of Israel back to a place of worship to the Lord. They both were motivated to rebuild the temple and the walls around the city of Jerusalem. Up until this point the children of Israel had been in captivity in Babylon and some had compromised in their faith. There was worship of other gods and marrying pagan women. There needed to be a purification.

So Nehemiah commanded the people to put away the foreign women and purify themselves before the Lord their God and prepare their hearts to worship Him. So they obeyed.

In Ezra you see King Darius' approval of the rebuilding and gave favor to the Jews. He gave permission to take from the kings treasury anything they needed to pay for the provisions of the temple. Now as the Jews obeyed God and the men in charge there was great favor. They had opposition, but God was so delighted in what they were doing that He took care of the opposition.

These men of faith, Ezra and Nehemiah, based there strength on the Lord. He was their pillar. The support to their existence. They understood the need to be focused on God and the need to worship Him. They understood that the temple represented this purpose as it was to be built in the center of the city and as they looked upon the temple it gave the people the right mindset of what they were to do on a daily basis; to worship God and to pray always to Him.

The only way they were able to accomplish the task of rebuilding was to determine that they would not be moved, work together as one, and seek God's favor and direction. I really believe this is essential to any kind of ministry and personal walk with God.

Our pillars in this life are Christ first, His word, prayer and then the people that make up the body of Christ. As we utilize our pillars our building will remain solid. The main structure may ruin at times, but it can always be rebuilt around the pillars.

So my question to you today is "who or what are you building your life around?" Is it Christ and Him crucified? If not I pray that you find yourself at the place where you are looking upon the temple, knowing that you need to get back to a place of worship with Him. He is your solid support and foundation in this life. He desires complete surrender and worship from His children.

What a wonderful thing to be allowed to worship the Creator of the universe. Be blessed today. Take time to pray today and encourage someone.

Utmost for His Highest, Aug. 28th

"prayer is the way the life of God is nourished"

"It is not so true that prayer changes things as that prayer changes me and I change things."