Last Sunday on my way to church, I passed by a homemade sign. This sign has been in the same location for numerous years. The road traveled is often on my way to frequented destinations, so I have seen the sign a plethora of times. Yet, this time, when I caught a glimpse of the hand painted sign, I thought it read “Human Repair” instead of “Home Repair”. The misinterpreted reading caught me off guard, but God…it was as if He whispered to me “Yes, human repair. You all are broken and are in need of repairing by Me.”
Amen!
Friend, you may feel damaged and neglected, and in need of some repair. I can’t think of a better “human” repairman than God.
While searching the Bible for related scripture to share with you, I found one in (what I thought) was an unlikely place, yet appropriate. I was drawn to 2 Kings 12:1-15.
Stay with me while I make this comparison, and maybe you’ll see it the way I read it for this scenario.
Joash began to rule over Judah in the seventh year of King Jehu’s reign in Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother was Zibiah from Beersheba. All his life Joash did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Yet even so, he did not destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. One day King Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as a sacred offering to the Lord’s Temple, whether it is a regular assessment, a payment of vows, or a voluntary gift. Let the priests take some of that money to pay for whatever repairs are needed at the Temple.” But by the twenty-third year of Joash’s reign, the priests still had not repaired the Temple. So King Joash called for Jehoiada and the other priests and asked them, “Why haven’t you repaired the Temple? Don’t use any more money for your own needs. From now on, it must all be spent on Temple repairs.” So the priests agreed not to accept any more money from the people, and they also agreed to let others take responsibility for repairing the Temple. Then Jehoiada the priest bored a hole in the lid of a large chest and set it on the right-hand side of the altar at the entrance of the Temple of the Lord. The priests guarding the entrance put all of the people’s contributions into the chest. Whenever the chest became full, the court secretary and the high priest counted the money that had been brought to the Lord’s Temple and put it into bags. Then they gave the money to the construction supervisors, who used it to pay the people working on the Lord’s Temple—the carpenters, the builders, the masons, and the stonecutters. They also used the money to buy the timber and the finished stone needed for repairing the Lord’s Temple, and they paid any other expenses related to the Temple’s restoration. The money brought to the Temple was not used for making silver bowls, lamp snuffers, basins, trumpets, or other articles of gold or silver for the Temple of the Lord. It was paid to the workmen, who used it for the Temple repairs. No accounting of this money was required from the construction supervisors, because they were honest and trustworthy men. However, the money that was contributed for guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the Lord’s Temple. It was given to the priests for their own use. 2 Kings 12:1-16 NLT
Here are my thoughts:
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The temple needed repairing. WE are God’s temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, You should know that you yourselves are God’s temple. God’s Spirit lives in you.
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In verse 3 of 2 Kings 12, notice that the Joash did NOT destroy the pagan shrines, and the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there. Friend, we need to get rid of the sin and selfishness in our lives, the things that cause us to not live for God, so that we don’t fall back into the ways of the world. Don’t give God just a portion of your heart…give Him all of you.
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Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10 NIV
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“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord]. Matthew 6:24 AMP
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In the study bible notes section of my bible, for verse 2, it says “Joash didn’t go far enough in removing sin from the nation, but he did much that was good and right. When we aren’t sure if we’ve gone far enough in correcting our actions, we can ask; 1) Does the Bible expressly prohibit this action? 2) Does this action take me away from loving, worshiping, or serving God? 3) Does it make me its slave? 4) Is it bringing out the best in me, consistent with God’s purpose? 5) Does it benefit other believers?”
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This next section gets a bit fuzzy, but…when I read verses 4-16, I was reminded how we can surround ourselves with good, and even godly people, but we need to be careful not to put our trust in others to do the “human repairing” for us, that’s God’s job. Friends often have genuine intentions, but if you are in serious need of some counseling, please seek out those who are trained to counsel you in a godly fashion. God does equip people to aid in your healing. Just remember that you have to desire healing and The One (The Healer) who can and will completely restore you.
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He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3
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Listen, when we want complete repairing done in our lives, we should focus on God. Put Him first in our life. I want to encourage you to read, study, memorize, and meditate on God’s word. It has healing powers. True healing from within, not just not he surface.
God, create a pure heart in me, and make my spirit strong again. Psalm 51:10
Are you in need of “Human/Home Repair”? When you are a Christian, Jesus Christ lives within you…your body is His home. Turn to Jesus. He can and will heal you.
Blessings to you and yours,
Stephanie
So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more and more grace? Of course not! Our old sinful life ended. It’s dead. So how can we continue living in sin? Did you forget that all of us became part of Christ Jesus when we were baptized? In our baptism we shared in his death. So when we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and took part in his death. And just as Christ was raised from death by the wonderful power of the Father, so we can now live a new life. Christ died, and we have been joined with him by dying too. So we will also be joined with him by rising from death as he did. We know that our old life was put to death on the cross with Christ. This happened so that our sinful selves would have no power over us. Then we would not be slaves to sin. Anyone who has died is made free from sin’s control. If we died with Christ, we know that we will also live with him. Christ was raised from death. And we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God. In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive for God through Christ Jesus. But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace. Romans 6:1-14 ERV
https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-brokenness.html