Day 21: Jesus Uses Relationships for Redemptive Purposes

But the word of the Lord came to me: “You have shed much blood and waged great wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed so much blood on the ground before me. But a son will be born to you; he will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies, for his name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.” 1 CHRONICLES 22:8–10

ALTHOUGH I’VE NEVER WORKED as a shepherd or felled an evil giant with a slingshot, much less served as God’s chosen royal sovereign over a nation, I can identify with King David. Like him, I fell in love with God when I was little. And like him, I also betrayed my first love and chose my wants over His will. And while I’ve never had literal blood on my hands, I know all too well what it feels like to carry such heavy shame that I couldn’t get past the blueprint stage of dreams I desperately hoped to build.

Today’s passage (don’t worry, we’ll still get to a promissory passage about Jesus even though it wasn’t at the top like normal!) reveals that King David was not allowed to build the temple even though he was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14) because there’d been too much blood on his hands as a military leader. God had chosen someone else to build His house: David’s son, Solomon. These words from God came across as sad and even a bit punitive to me for years. But when I became a mom, I began to read them from a different perspective, ultimately with deep, resonating gratitude.

I explained this story to Missy recently and told her that if Jesus tarries, much like Solomon, she’ll build more incredible things for God than I ever could because she won’t carry the debilitating weight of things she wasn’t built for. Said another way, as one generation turns to the next, she’ll be able to take up the mantle of God’s call without all the baggage I would have brought to the table should I have been the one to answer the call God has on her life. And I’m increasingly confident about my daughter having a bondage-free future because of the saints God has graciously woven into our tiny family’s story to serve as her spiritual aunts and uncles. Dear friends who are willing to dislocate their proverbial shoulders in order to make supernatural doorways wider for Missy to walk through.

We weren’t made to walk alone, y’all. God made us in His trinitarian, communal image (Gen. 1:26–27), which means we’re divinely wired for relationship! We’re called to cultivate friends who are safe and mature enough to know about the “blood” that’s been on our hands in the past, yet who still passionately believe and pray for redemptive miracles in our future. Who could even take up the mantle in the very place we need to lay it down. Who help pull off God’s vast purposes in this world as a team, together, one generation after the next. Do whatever it takes to surround yourself with a community of honest believers who are preoccupied with loving God and other image-bearers. Listen for times when the Lord might be calling them to enter in and take up the torch in the places you need time to recover, rest, or repent from past blood on your hands. Choose to remember that it takes all of us to build everything that God wants to build in this world. Press into people who are planted firmly in Jesus—especially the ones who come right before you and right after you (for this is how God’s work is carried forward!)—and He promises to be right there in the middle of your motley crew.

“Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” (Matt. 18:19–20)

• READ ECCLESIASTES 3:1–8 and also 4:9–12. How would you synopsize each of these passages in your own words?
• PROVERBS 27:17 (NLT) proclaims: “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” What faithful friend(s) can you trust to consistently point you toward Jesus?