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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Carol McCracken, and after a short we're

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor. Will dive Intoday's Bible verses Psalm one

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Speaker 1: twenty seven one through two. Today's Bible verses our Psalm

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Speaker 1: one twenty seven one through two. Unless the Lord builds

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Speaker 1: the house, the builders labor and main. Unless the Lord

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Speaker 1: watches over the city, the guard stand watch in main.

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Speaker 1: In vain, you rise early and stamp late, toiling for

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Speaker 1: food to eat. For He grants sleep to those he loves.

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Speaker 1: I'm getting ready for what's becoming an annual tradition with

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Speaker 1: two dear friends. One of them has a goal of

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Speaker 1: visiting all fifty states, so every year we head somewhere

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Speaker 1: new to help her cross a few more off the map.

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Speaker 1: I genuinely love traveling with these women, but one of

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Speaker 1: the reasons may surprise you. I don't plan the trip.

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Speaker 1: One of my friends enjoys that part. She researches the route,

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Speaker 1: chooses the hotels, makes the reservations, and figures out what

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Speaker 1: we'll do each day. I know the general destination, but

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Speaker 1: beyond that, I'm happy to climb into the passenger seat

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Speaker 1: with my coffee and simply enjoy the ride. For someone

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Speaker 1: who spends most of her life organizing events, managing details,

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Speaker 1: and thinking three steps ahead, that's unusual. I don't feel

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Speaker 1: compelled to improve the itinerary or solve problems that haven't

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Speaker 1: happened yet. I trust the person who did the planning,

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Speaker 1: and because I trust her, I can be fully present.

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Speaker 1: That little experience has caused me to think about this

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Speaker 1: song in a new way. One one twenty seven is

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Speaker 1: one of us songs of a Sense, a collection of

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Speaker 1: psalms that God's people sang as they traveled to Jerusalem

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Speaker 1: for the annual festivals. Families made those journeys together, often

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Speaker 1: walking for days. As they traveled uphill toward the city,

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Speaker 1: they sang truths that reminded them who God was and

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Speaker 1: who they were. This particular psalm is attributed to Solomon,

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Speaker 1: the king, whose name is almost synonymous with wisdom and building.

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Speaker 1: He oversaw the construction of the temple, expanded the kingdom,

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Speaker 1: and accomplished projects that were unlike anything Israel and sen before.

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Speaker 1: If anyone understood planning, organization, construction, and leadership. It was

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Speaker 1: Solomon that makes his opening statement all the more striking.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't dismiss building, he doesn't criticize watchmen for standing guard.

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Speaker 1: In fact, both were necessary. Houses have to be built,

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Speaker 1: cities have to be protected, and work has to be done.

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Speaker 1: Scripture consistently commends diligence. Proverbs has polited to say about

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Speaker 1: working hard, planning wisely, and avoiding laziness. The issue isn't

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Speaker 1: whether God's people should work. The issue is whether they

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Speaker 1: remember who ultimately makes their work fruitful. Notice Solomon uses

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Speaker 1: the phrase in vain three times and only two verses

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Speaker 1: that repetition is intentional. In the Old Testament, repetition often

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Speaker 1: serves as a way of placing a spotlight on an

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Speaker 1: important truth. Solomon isn't saying that work is meaningless. He's

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Speaker 1: saying that work, disconnected from dependence on God becomes an

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Speaker 1: exhausting attempt to accomplish by human effort what ultimately belongs

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Speaker 1: to him. Think about the three pictures he uses. Builders

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Speaker 1: construct a house, but they can't guarantee that what they

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Speaker 1: build will endure. Watchmen stand on the walls through the

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Speaker 1: night that they can't control every danger that might come

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Speaker 1: against the city early and stay up late trying to

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Speaker 1: secure tomorrow. But no amount of extra hours can promise

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Speaker 1: the future. Each example describes responsible people doing responsible things,

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Speaker 1: yet every one of them eventually reaches the same limit.

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Speaker 1: Human effort has boundaries. That may be one of the

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Speaker 1: hardest lessons for competent people to learn. Some of us

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Speaker 1: are wired to organize, anticipate, and prepare. Those are good gifts.

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Speaker 1: Churches need planners. Families benefit from planners. Businesses depend on planners.

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Speaker 1: Good stewardship often looks like careful preparation. The Bible never

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Speaker 1: asks us to become careless in order to prove we

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Speaker 1: trust God. What it does ask is that we recognize

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Speaker 1: the point where preparation quietly becomes the illusion of control.

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Speaker 1: Those two things are easy to confuse because they often

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Speaker 1: look identical on the outside. A person can spend an

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Speaker 1: afternoon planning a conference because she wants to serve people well.

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Speaker 1: Another person can spend the same afternoon planning because she's

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Speaker 1: convinced everything depends on her getting every detail exactly right.

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Speaker 1: The calendars may look identical, but the heart is carrying

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Speaker 1: two very different burdens. Solomon reminds us that there are

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Speaker 1: responsibilities God has given us and responsibilities He's kept for himself.

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Speaker 1: Where responsible for faithfulness, God's responsible for fruitfulness. We're responsible

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Speaker 1: for obedience. God is responsible for outcomes. Where responsible for

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Speaker 1: showing up and doing today's work with excellence, God remains

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Speaker 1: responsible for tomorrow. That's why the final line of the

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Speaker 1: passage is so beautiful. He grants sleep to those he loves.

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Speaker 1: Sleep is one of the clearest acts of trust we

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Speaker 1: practice each day. Every night, we close our eyes, become

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Speaker 1: completely unaware of what's happening around us, and acknowledge, whether

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Speaker 1: we think about it or not, that the world will

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Speaker 1: continue turning without our supervision. God never asks us to

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Speaker 1: stay awake all night, proving our commitment. Instead, he invites

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Speaker 1: us to rest, because his care for the world never

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Speaker 1: depends on our constant attention. I wonder if that's one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons I enjoy those trips with my friends

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Speaker 1: so much. For a few days, I step away from

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Speaker 1: being the person who has to know every answer. I

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Speaker 1: don't stop being responsible. I still pack my suitcase, show

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Speaker 1: up on time, and carry my share of the load,

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Speaker 1: but I gladly let someone else carry the responsibility for

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Speaker 1: the itinerary because I trust her judgment. That experience has

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Speaker 1: become a gentle reminder that there are areas of my

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Speaker 1: life when God is inviting me to do the same

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Speaker 1: with him. Faith doesn't mean refusing to plan. It means

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Speaker 1: planning faithfully while remembering that God never asked us to

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Speaker 1: carry the weight of being the sovereign. We're called to bill,

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Speaker 1: to work, to prepare, and to serve with all our

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Speaker 1: our hearts. We're simply not called to believe that the

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Speaker 1: success of everything around us rests on our shoulders. If

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Speaker 1: you've been caring more than God ever intended you to carry,

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Speaker 1: perhaps on one twenty seven offers a better way do

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Speaker 1: today's work well, Plan wisely, be diligent, then leave room

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Speaker 1: for the Lord to do what only the Lord can do.

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Speaker 1: There's a freedom that comes from recognizing the difference, and

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Speaker 1: it just might allow you to enjoy the journey a

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Speaker 1: little more than you have lately. Will you pray with me,

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Speaker 1: dear Lord in Heaven. I know I wrote this, but

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Speaker 1: just reading it again it convicted me. Thank you, Lord

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Speaker 1: for stepping in to show us exactly what boundaries are.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes I personally get them confused because I want to

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Speaker 1: do the next right thing, but Lord, you guide that,

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Speaker 1: not me. And Lord, thank you for stepping in. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for being proud of me I know you are,

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Speaker 1: and help me when I step too far away. I

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Speaker 1: think I use this pronoun meme, but it applies to

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Speaker 1: so many of our listeners. Sometimes Lord, because we want

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Speaker 1: to please others. But Lord, you never called us to

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Speaker 1: get lost in the details and to be perfect. You

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Speaker 1: just asked us to be obedient. Help us to do that,

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Speaker 1: and your precious name we pray. Ohmen,