Demolition and construction

Jeremiah 1:9 Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 "See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant."

Several years ago I  remember driving by a a spot where some old abandoned office buildings used to be. They had been removed. The area looked strange without those old buildings. It was several months before I happened to be in that area again. By now erected in place of those run down buildings were some beautiful condominiums. Those old office buildings had been neglected and were falling apart. They were really an eye sore to the neighborhood. The new condos totally transformed the area. It was a mini ghost town before. Now there were people out on the sidewalks walking dogs, jogging, sitting in chairs drinking tea and coffee......signs of life existed where there had previously only been an empty shell of a building.

It reminds me of what God does in us spiritually speaking. When the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, we learn what that word does. It plucks up, breaks down, destroys, and overthrows. There are some things in us that need to be plucked up, broken down, destroyed, and overthrown. There are attitudes that need to change, there are habits that need to be discarded, there are thought patterns that need to be abandoned.....and it is the word of the Lord that does that.

I often get people who tell me after a message, "Pastor that message really stepped on my toes this morning." What is really going on here? Did I sit in my office while I was preparing and say, "I am going to really nail them to the wall this week!" No, that's not what is going on. What's going on is that the word of the Lord has just been presented and applied, and the word of the Lord (not the preacher) is tearing down something that needs to be torn down in their lives.

The good news is that it does not stop there. Jeremiah said the word of the Lord also builds and plants if you look at the last part of verse 10. The word of the Lord is not just to tear you down and make you feel awful. In place of what God tears down in you through the word, HE wants to build something new into your life. But He can not do it until the demolition project is over. The folks that built those condos could not build them until the old office buildings were out of the way.

Embrace the process.....it is a process.....do not resist it, do not resent it and God will tear down in you the things that need to be torn down and rebuild you into something beautiful and full of life.