Did you ever try to build a house of cards? It’s kind of fun to see how many levels you can build up before, splat – and the whole thing falls down. No matter how far you get though, the inevitable will happen.

Psalm 127:1 says; “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” This is true for world systems, governments, false religions, relationships – everything. Remember communism? Back in 1956, Khrushchev said; “We will bury you!” But who got buried when communist governments all over Europe toppled in the 1980s? Remember Hitler? That was certainly a house the Lord didn’t build.

If you examine all the failed systems everywhere you will have a good picture of every house God did not build. Only what God builds will endure. That’s why we should examine our life and make sure we aren’t laboring in vain in some area of it.

Are we building an ungodly relationship? Are we building a business or enterprise that God had no part in initiating? How about building security for ourselves with money and investments outside God’s principles? All of it will fail eventually.

Some of these things may appear to work for a time. Perhaps we will have temporary success. As the years go by, we may feel we beat the system or wonder if God didn’t notice. That will not be the case. In the end, unless the Lord built the house, all we have is a house of cards.