David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the LORD is finished. 1 Chronicles 28:20(NIV)
One of the most dangerous places to find yourself is complaining about what others are doing while lacking to presently do work yourself. While in a community meeting, I listened to various people in attendance discuss their concerns about changes they would like to see and things that needed to be fixed. At the conclusion of the meeting, I had the opportunity to engage some individuals and I raised the question are you doing the work presently to correct the issues of concern? I began to get stares of who do you think you are? I decided to walk away because I realized feathers had been ruffled.
Solomon has been selected by God to build a house, his father David comes to the place of acceptance and understands his role is to instruct but not build. One of the places of comfort for some is when someone else has a desire to do your work, but ultimately what God has assigned our hands to do is our responsibility. You can’t escape your assignment! So, David instructs his son David “to be strong and courageous, and do the work”, David understood the significance of building a special place for the ark to rest and what Solomon needed to complete the task. David says your going to need to make firm and keep hold of or seize and do the work. Think about this, Solomon has been given the instructions on how to build, who is to help build, how to divide the roles amongst the builders, and that everyone is going to follow his instructions. Even when all these things are aligned, at times we struggle with just doing the work but the greatest push in getting the work done is “the Lord God, my God is with you”.
Be encouraged that if God is with you, just do the work! What if they don’t follow my instructions? What if we run out of supplies? What if we build incorrectly? I know that there are several things that can go wrong but God is with you, this is the reassurance that we serve a promise keeping God who ensures us that we are never forsaken. Move beyond the reasons for why it can’t be done and Do the work! Lord help us to do the work you have assigned our hands to do.