Building Life On A Firm Foundation

Building life on a firm foundation means only one thing- to build our life on Scripture and follow God’s path.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

In a nutshell, this verse states that when we build our lives on anything other than what the Lord teaches us, our plans will fail – eventually. If we want a life that runs smoothly, a life protected by unforseen negative circumstances, we need to consult the Bible on every major and minor decision in life, praying for the Lord’s guidance.

The next step is to follow what the Lord reveals to us, even if we are assaulted, mocked or ridiculed for our decision. We shouldn’t be surprised if there are people who question what the Lord has imparted to us, because many times the Lord’s ways are not logical. Many of our naysayers will be well meaning Christians who haven’t made the step to fully follow the Lord. They go to the Bible with their own agenda and their own intellect, hoping to find an answer that fits into their plan.

Going into Bible study with an agenda will never give us revelation of what the Lord would like to impress upon our soul. The best way to approach the bible is to pray a prayer such as: “Lord, I really would like to follow you, please show me the way to go, even if I won’t like it.” God is faithful to a request like this because it shows humility and it acknowledges God as superior. We all need to remember that humans have a limited perspective on life – God has a birds eye view of the present and the future.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2 ESV)

Building life on a firm foundation of Scripture will cause us to be very uncomfortable at times. We must be prepared to have God lead us in a counterintuitive direction. I equate following the Lord to be similar to climbing up the high dive ladder at the pool, every rung in the ladder is a step that I give to the Lord. Eventually I find myself walking out to the end of the board – then God says “jump, I’ve got you!”

When you decide to impart your will in an area of your life, you are choosing to go against God. We all have done this. I have done it many times until I finally realized that God’s way is best. This is the journey of faith. You may get some choices right the first go around, but many times we have to learn through our mistakes. It can take years before we gain enough trust to follow God on an issue- and that’s okay. Any struggle that leads us to trust the Lord in a deeper way- will allow us to teach others. The late Dr. Charles Stanley, explains the stubborn pride of humanity like this…

A farmer tells his men who are about to sow his fields, that a heap of seed is thoroughly bad- they are dead. But the farmer tells them that the seed in the storehouse is sure to bring forth a good crop. The workmen didn’t believe him. They sowed the bad seed, and when summer came there was nothing but weeds. Well, say they, we must till the land better; we must try again. Would not this be striving against the farmer?

This story explains that if God wanted us to take a certain path, He would have made it successful the first time. Notice in that example that the farmer (God) told them where they would find success, but the sowers of the seed (human beings) decided that He was wrong (lack of humility). Doing things our own way will always result in problems and backtracking.

We must not let doubt become a lifestyle because It’s when doubt becomes stubbornness and stubbornness becomes our way of life that it harms faith. God’s ways are higher than our ways. Our job is to trust God rather than use our flawed human intellect to make decisions about our lives.

Building life on the firm foundation of Scripture will keep us from sudden disaster.

” You need not fear sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked.” (Prov 3:25 NLT)

We must acknowledge when we have veered from God’s way so we can make a correction. When we confess that we have lived our life our own way and then ask for God’s forgiveness, He will joyfully guide us back on track.

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all of your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.” (proverbs 3:5-6)

God’s Promise:“True humility and fear of the Lord leads to riches, honor and long life.” (Proverbs 22:4 NLT)

Once we have mastered trusting the Lord and being glad we did, we can teach our children to do the same. This way we will save them years of lost time and less heartache and pain.

Food For Thought,

Lisa