31 Day Challenge - Day 25

 I wrote a short story in 1987 about a large house surrounded by woods. It was based on the homes I  might see on my way home from work. They were massive, beautiful and had lots of space around them. About this time of year, autumn, you could see them clearly as the trees that surrounded them shed their leaves. My desire was to live in one of those homes, and if not, atleast to look inside. That was the focus of my story; peering inside.

At that time in 1987, the Lord gave me a vision of what the inside of these homes could look like, but on a spiritual level. He let me know that even if the outside of the house was gorgeous, what really mattered was what was on the inside of the home; where the people lived. When I read Proverbs 24:3-5, I remembered the story and the lesson God taught me from it. In the story, I peekked through the window and discovered that the house was pretty much empty and very much unkept. What I thought would be filled with expensive furniture and exquisite decor was dusty and desolate and needing much care. The curtains had moths and cobwebs hanging on them and what I thought was a once beautiful home no longer had an appeal. I wondered what people saw when they looked into my life. Did they find a blessed home or chaos and decay? It's easy to have a nice outward appearance, but how do we have a well kept home?

Proverbs 24:3-5 says, "A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables. The wise are mightier than the strong, and those with knowledge grow stronger and stronger." It's not what people see on the outside of us, but what they encounter on the inside of us that matters most. We all have to determine what our house is built of and who the builder is. The homes in my story were worthless in their current state. They looked very attractive on the outside, but the inside had no value. That's not the house I want built; that's not the house I want to live in. I desire a house built with wisdom, and as the Proverbs says, by wisdom. A house erected by good sense and knowledge, which will make it a strong and secure home. That's how I want my home to be built, so that it is established through Christ from glory to glory, growing stronger and more secure every day!