And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 1 Kings 6:1
It was in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, the first three years being taken up in settling the affairs of his kingdom, that he might not find any embarrassment from them in this work. It is not time lost which is spent in composing ourselves for the work of God, and disentangling ourselves from everything which might distract or divert us. We are truly serving God when we are preparing for His service and furnishing ourselves for it. (Matthew Henry)
This is a very obscure verse and the actual verse didn't catch my attention; it was Matthew's interpretation of it. (Notice that Matthew and I are now on a first name basis) Solomon became king and took three years to get his kingdom organized before he began building the temple, that his father David wanted to build. The phrase that is underlined stayed with me several days before I actually went back and wrote it down in my journal.
entangle - to involve in or as in a tangle; catch, as in a net, vine, so that escape is difficult; to involve in difficulty; to confuse mentally; perplex
That's how my life is sometimes; too involved in things that take away from my purpose here on earth. Things that leave me confused and perplexed; yet hard to escape from. Solomon with a purpose disentangled himself and set his house in order so that God's work could begin. It's all a balancing act--life here on earth--relationships--duty to the Lord.
We need to look at our lives with a purpose; always checking to see what could be gotten rid of, what are we spending our time on, what is holding us back. Satan is very subtle and if we are not careful; he will wrap his yarn all around us, a little at a time, until we can hardly see.
God is good with His Grace that is always--always there for us.
1 comment:
Ooooh... disentangling. How interesting. I've been thinking for days now that I have been letting too many things distract me and influence me lately, and that I needed to step back and not be so... "entangled". That is a great way to put it.
And most of that influence was from blogs. I wanted to visit and try to encourage people, especially ones that were struggling. But found that if read too many like that, it was infecting ME. I felt all tangled up in the "I'm such a binger... I am struggling... will I ever figure this out?..." mindset.
I felt I needed to back off, and not allow myself to become infected and side-tracked... yet felt guilty and selfish. But after reading this post, I feel better about it, that I was on the right track after all. I want to learn to be an encourager, without being dragged down.
It's too easy to lose priorities, and veer off in the wrong direction. And waste precious time.
Thanks for this, it really helped.
Loretta
=^..^=
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