Building a house is a slow and painstaking process. We built a home in Austin, TX, in an area that was heavily wooded, where deer and other animals felt free to roam. The streets were unpaved and the would-be neighborhood was nowhere close to resembling the beautiful subdivision we would soon enjoy. We were hoping and anticipating with great joy a completed and finished project that would be our dream come true, a wonderful home and community where we would reside.

During the building process, we were living in a temporary housing apartment, where very little in it was truly ours. Outside the gates of the apartment, there was major construction going on. There was dust and rocks, gravel and dirt, noise and trucks, and men working in hard hats. They were rigorously laboring towards a goal. Their aim was a finished structure, an office complex, perfect, new and pleasing to the owner.

The construction site had a fence around the project. On the fence hung a sign with the words, “Pardon Our Progress.” I passed that sign every day on my way to visit the site of our future home. I surveyed the grounds, later the edifice, daily, waiting both patiently and sometimes impatiently to see advancement on something we’d made a deposit on, something we’d paid the price for.

One day, as I was walking the grounds, it hit me! This is how God must feel about me, His creation. Jesus has paid the price for my life by His precious blood and He is waiting to see changes in me. He’s looking for growth, maturity and transformation in my life.

Jesus has an amazing team: God, the Father, is the Chief Architect and Creator of all life; the Holy Spirit who works from the inside-out; and Jesus Himself who oversees my progress. He’s got all the necessary tools—love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, self-control, faithfulness and gentleness—to prune and chisel me into the “fearfully and wonderfully made” work He desires me to be. He uses the same blueprint He’s used for thousands of years, the Bible, His Word, and it never changes. In it you will find that you were created with love by our Father God who wants us to live abundantly according to His definite plans for our lives.

But many of us have made little progress. So our building sits idle, partially completed, with many open areas that allow the enemy's intruders to come in. We are unprotected; the walls are not shored up, which makes the building susceptible to the elements and vandals who tear at our structure seeking to steal, kill and destroy the beauty that God has planned in His designs for our lives.

So what’s holding up your progress? Why are there no signs of work? No changes, no growth, no activity, no clearing of grounds, no ridding of debris? Are there too many useless rocks of willfulness and control, too many pebbles of pride and arrogance, stones of secret sins and selfishness, gravel of grumbling and discontent, or spreading roots of anger and bitterness?

An acknowledgement must be made: that prayer, study and worship are what’s needed to start to lay a firm foundation for the house that God wants to erect. When the Holy Spirit is given permission to take control, Jesus and those around you will begin to see change, growth and transformation in your life. Hope and faith will be the beams to hold your structure when the storms of life occur. The windows of your soul will be windows of opportunity as you obediently fulfill God’s plan for your life. No more fears that keep you from living with joy in His purpose. And His Word will be what lights your home and path and brings peace to all who enter in.

Philippians 1:6 says, “He who begins a good work in you will see it to the day of completion.” Let Him have control; have faith in His plans for your life. His blueprint has been solid and true since the beginning of time. Remove the fence that was placed around your structure, let the Holy Spirit be the Contractor to guide your progress. Let’s remove the "Pardon My Progress" sign and put up instead, “Sold and Living Under New Management!"