Daily Devotional Bible Verse
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)
We are on the third devotion in our series “The Vain Life”. You can start from the beginning by going here.
From Ryan:
We just learned that our lives can be referred to as a house and that Jesus Christ needs to be our foundation in the previous devotion. Now King Solomon has decided to talk about cities. The city was especially important to King Solomon because it is where the Temple was. This was the place that God literally dwelt and was the religious center for the Jews. If Jerusalem went, so did the Jewish culture.
We all can choose whether we want to be a part of a city of light set on a hill (Matthew 5:14) or, follow the path of Lot and be part of the city of darkness where he eventually lost everything he had (Genesis 19). Both cities have watchmen over them. The city of light has Christ watching over it, while the city of darkness has the politicians, celebrities, writers, and people of influence watching over them. While living in Africa as a missionary, we had a guard watching our compound (the place where all the missionaries lived) for a week at a time. Obviously, they couldn’t stay up for a whole week and had to sleep sometimes. There were multiple times that while they were asleep, people would sneak in while we were even sleeping and steal solar panels and other supplies. We felt as though we were being watched over, when in reality we weren’t. Our “city” was being watched in vain. We really weren’t being kept safe by our watchman. You might feel safe in the the city of darkness, but in reality the watchmen are not protecting you.
While Christ should be the head or watchman of your life and family, he is also the watchman of the Church (Colossians 1:18). The Church is really a smaller city within the city it resides. If you aren’t a part of one of these cities, be sure to find one soon!! Make sure that their watchman is Christ and not just a smooth-talking leader/preacher. Also, remember that our watchman, Jesus Christ, laid down His life for the city and does not watch over it in vain (John 10:7-11).
Is Christ the watchman over the city you belong to?
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