“Every single day we are constructing our lives. With each decision we make, those intentional and those not, we’re putting down building blocks in our lives; blocks we’ll build upon again tomorrow. This building needs to begin with a solid foundation; the type of foundation that holds up when life is good and when it’s not.” – Lynn Cowell
Back in November of 2006, about 3 months after we got married, my husband started building our house. We did not hire builders to do this; we took the job on ourselves. So, I learned a lot about construction and what goes into building a house over that year and still to this day. My husband, on the other hand, just knows how to do stuff and is able to build and fix pretty much anything.
Of course, when building anything, you need to make sure you have a foundation that can stand firm and strong.
Luke 6:48 says, "It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well-built."
When trials and struggles come, we need a foundation that is strong, and that foundation is our faith in the Lord. When anything comes our way, we can stand firm on our faith to know we will make it through.
One time, I was standing on a 3 ft ladder, and I fell off, hurting my knee. Of course, it was a funny, not-so-funny moment because, first of all, who falls off a 3 ft ladder and how? Well, we were putting some siding on our shop, and the ladder was not on level ground, and the wind was blowing… so that’s how.
Regardless, the point here is that we can think we are standing firm on something and then come to realize that it wasn’t as stable as we thought it was. If a ladder’s feet are not all on the ground, then it will wobble. Similarly, if we are not fully grounded in the Word of God, we can also wobble when things in life come up.
In Psalm 24:3, it says, "A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense."
Now, if I had used my wisdom a bit more that day, knowing that a ladder is not always safe, especially on uneven ground, maybe I would have been more careful.
This is why we use wisdom and discernment to evaluate situations, so we don’t make the same mistakes, and through that wisdom, we start to build a firm foundation.
Most of us have probably visited a beach of some sort. What happens if you are standing on the sand next to the water long enough? You start to sink down because we're not standing on something firm but on something that moves and conforms to our feet, eventually covering them.
In Colossians 1:23, it says, "But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it."
Paul here is reminding us that through faith and truth in God’s word, we will be on a firm foundation. We should not let ourselves sink into worldly things but stand on the firm foundation of faith in the Lord that we have.