Luke 14:28 - "But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?" (NLT) (1)
In 2009, a company began building a multi-million-dollar casino-resort on the strip in Las Vegas. Before the building was complete the recession hit, and it was left abandoned for over a decade. The funds ran out before the structure was even three quarters of the way built. I recently read that this building is now complete and is scheduled to open by the end of the year. Ten years and millions of dollars later, they finished what had been started so long ago. It doesn’t appear that those who were planning the project counted the full cost to complete what they had begun.
From the beginning, God made it pretty clear that I was meant to rebuild my life. It would have been easy to decide rebuilding wasn’t worth the cost or the effort. To let it rot in the wreck of devastation left after catastrophe had struck it down much like the unfinished building in Las Vegas. I could have given in to the despair and the depression. I could have easily chosen to pick up a bottle of alcohol instead of my Bible when things were hard. And they were always hard. I could have jumped into another relationship to prove that someone wanted me, that I had value in someone’s eyes. I could have turned to drugs or self-destruction. I wanted to do all those things and more. I definitely did some things in those first few months that I shouldn’t have. I drank more than I had at any other time in my life: before or after. I was trying to be who I thought my husband had wanted me to be. But deep down, I knew those things weren’t good for me, and they would only cause more pain for me and to those I loved. It would have been easier to give in to the urge to drive my car off the edge of a bridge or to sink to the bottom of the pool. But there was always something that kept me pushing forward through the darkness and the pain. I feel like it was the Spirit of God within me continuing to draw me closer to Him, towards His light, and away from the edge of the abyss.
When I turned my life completely over to God, I had to agree with His plans to rebuild my life. I surrendered my plans to His will and His plans. God’s designs and plans are always intricate in detail. He cares about the smallest of details, that we may overlook or think of as insignificant. When you read about any of the items in the Bible that God told man to build, He gave exacting measurements with every element specifically planned out and designed in minute detail. Exodus 25-31 provides God’s complex design for the Ark of the Covenant, the Tabernacle, and even the priests’ garments. God gave Noah explicit instructions on how to build the Ark before the flood (Genesis 6:13-22) and again to Solomon for building the Holy Temple (1 Kings 6:2-9).
Just as God had very specific plans for building these Biblical structures, He had very specific plans for rebuilding my life. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God knows the plans He has for each of us (paraphrased). He had plans for my life from the beginning, even as He knit me together in my mother’s womb. The things that I have encountered in this life have not deterred God’s plans for me. As Proverbs 19:21 warns, we can make our own plans, but it is God’s plans that prevail (paraphrased). When I read the verses above on how meticulously God plans things out in advance, it gives me comfort and hope in the good plans He has for me.
Once I decided to allow God to rebuild my life into what He wanted it to be, I had to surrender control of it all to Him. I thought of how when you want to build something in the natural, you always begin with a plan. You determine what you are going to build, where you are going to build, how you are going to build, and the materials you will use. You determine in advance if you have the time, ability, and resources you need to complete the project. In the natural, we often run out of the resources we need to finish the job, just as they had with the Las Vegas casino. But that is the beauty of surrendering the plan to the Master Builder. He is limitless and has infinite resources. He will never run out of the supplies needed to rebuild my life. He knows the exact right time, place, and process to make me into His masterpiece.
How about you? When you examine your life and your heart, are there some areas that need some renovation? Are you willing to allow God to do some construction on your life and your heart? There may be some much-needed demolition in order to initiate the things He has planned for your life. Some things may be cut away to allow space to build new things. If your life has been ravaged by devastating circumstances beyond your control, do you believe that God can rebuild it or restore it? Are you willing to surrender it all to Him and His good plans for you? Do you believe that the God who made the universe, who spoke everything into existence had a great Master Plan in mind when He created you?
In Ephesians 2:10, God says that we are His masterpiece. He made the stars in the sky, sunsets, rainbows, and butterflies and you are the one thing He called a masterpiece.
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