It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time!

1 Chronicles 17:1-6(NKJV)

1Now it came to pass, when David was dwelling in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains.”

2Then Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

3But it happened that night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 

4“Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You shall not build Me a house to dwell in. 

5For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up Israel, even to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another. 

6Wherever I have moved about with all Israel, have I ever spoken a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”’ 

Interesting story.  David is incredibly grateful for all that he has.  He sees that he lives in better accommodations than God's Ark of the Covenant.  He thinks to himself "I'm going to build a house for the Ark."

David is acting out of all the right reasons and yet look what God says.  "Don't do it.  That's not my plan". 

A great warning to all of us that even though we may be doing something for all the correct reasons, if we don't check with God before we act instead of after, we could be acting against God's plan, and we know that's not a good thing!