By Nina Hyldgaard.

Earlier this year, my husband and I went to IKEA. We were only weeks away from giving birth to our baby girl, so naturally we were reorganising our home. We had carefully dreamed and planned out how we could turn the guest room into a nursery, and squeeze the guest room furniture into the office, and we simply needed a few glorious pieces of flat packed furniture from our Swedish friend to complete our home.

We were obviously very excited about the nursery, and before my husband had even finished unloading the car, my-heavily-pregnant-self had already ripped open the first flat-pack, organised screws, bolts and parts, and I was well on my way to assemble the toy cupboard.  Needless to say, he stepped in to help, and all the furniture for the nursery was built in record time.

The office, however, was another story… We placed the newly purchased shelves in our storage room and told ourselves that we would hang them later. Days, weeks, and even months passed, and those shelves remained in storage while our office became more and more cluttered. The resource we needed was in our house, however, we did not utilise nor benefit from them until, finally, on a rainy Saturday five months later we rolled up our sleeves and did the work.

In 1. Chronicles chapter 28, we can read about King David and his son, Solomon. King David had dreamed of and prepared for the construction of a temple for the Lord for a long time. He had made plans, collected resources, contributed with his own wealth, yet the Lord had made it clear to him that it was his son, Solomon, who would build it. In this chapter, Kind David informed his son of the plans and instructed him in what to do. Solomon must have thought it to be an overwhelming task because in verse 20, King David encouraged him with these words:

“Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”

While we are not building a flat-packed shelf or a physical temple, we are using our time, talent and treasure in building the house of God, our church home. What started as a dream in our lead pastors’ hearts is now a reality, however, we are not done building yet. We are building a church whose vision will always be greater than its’ resources. We want to build stronger, reach wider, go deeper…

I don’t know about you, but I give because I believe in the vision. I give so that we can build the dream.

As H4TH season is approaching, I want to encourage you with the words of David: Be strong and courageous and do the work. Be strong and courageous and ask God what part you should play. Be strong and courageous and step out in faith. Like our IKEA shelves, what all that we need to build the dream is already in our house? Be strong and courageous and let’s do the work!