Making Sure Your Foundation

Down the hill at the beginning of our driveway, we have a bench swing hanging from a large tree, with a flower bed at its base, bordered by a foot tall brick wall.

A farmer’s work is never done, especially when his job description encompasses the occupation of a handy man. Needless to say, I found myself in the masonry class today, rebuilding the decorative brick wall, armed with a shovel, ten fingers, and accompanied by five lizards, one spider, two centipedes, and hundreds of roly-poly’s.

As I removed the brick and used my shovel to level the base of the wall, I was reminded of the importance of having our character and spiritual foundations sure. When we do not take on the painstaking work and care to create a good foundation, we will become susceptible to the devil, and like I found out today, we’ll be rebuilding our foundation from brick one.

Here are four steps for a successful foundation.

1. Look at your wall.

Are there any foundational bricks missing?  If you see that your wall is leaning in the outward direction, even ever so slightly, you must be willing to look at that wall objectively and find the root of the problem. If you ignore or remain obstinate about your mistakes, ten or twenty years down the road from now, the wall is going to crumble. By this time you will have added another brick called ’Marriage’, plus many others to the top, and you don’t want to wait until then for your foundation to come out from under those special and hard earned bricks.

Proverbs 9:8- “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.”

2. Tear it down.

Don’t be afraid to regroup. If the spirituality brick is loose for example, tear down the wall, and search scriptures and Godly resources to find that which is true.

3. Rebuild your foundation.
Once you have found the right brick, e.g. ’sprituality’, carefully put it into place. For analogy, putting it in too hastily will only result in the brick falling out again. You must study out your foundation and make sure that the stones you are using are genuine brick.

1st John 4:1 - “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

4. Completing your wall.

Now build on from here with these simple steps.                                    

>Keep open communication among your parents and the elders of your church, for,

“Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.”- Prov. 20:18.

>Study the word of God.

Ecclesiastes 12: 13 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

>Fast and Pray for Guidance

2 Chronicles 20:3 “And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.”

>Open your life to God’s direction

Acts 20: 24 “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”

- D. Barley Riggs