“If you have the foundations right, the rest you can build on”. It’s a quote from the movie Money Pit, about a house that seemed to have everything wrong with it. However as the painters, plumbers and carpenters were leaving from their renovation work the head builder said those words to his owners because the core of the house had always been there. They’d simply built and rebuilt upon good foundations.
I think our lives are like that too. Every relationship, belief and pursuit we have can only be successful and stand the test of time and pressure it will inevitably come under, if the foundations are strong and built right in the first place. Without basing who we are, what we do and whom we choose to share our lives with on core, solid essentials eventually we are going to find ourselves on shaky ground and face inevitable collapse.
My husband and I have been together for over thirty years and we have definitely weathered some storms together. However our relationship and who we are together and separately always seems to be able to bounce back and just get stronger. That’s because from the outset we recognised God’s hand and calling upon both of our lives.
When we chose to build our life upon His promises and the way He asks us to do things we soon discovered that we would always have a steadying and guiding hand to come back to. The base is there and regardless of any pressure from family, finances, health issues, work or just life in general we know that we’ve built our “house” strong and we can always rely upon and lean on those solid foundations. Even if our life get buffeted about or perhaps needs a coat of paint or some renovations done on it, we have the core of who we are right, so we can always just keep building, cleaning up and tweaking things if necessary to move forward.
Take the time and effort to build your “house” right from the beginning, whether that is in your character, relationship, career, studies, friendships or future plans. Build solid foundations, put in the work now, pray lots and follow God’s building guidelines found in His Word, and you will build something that has far more chance of standing the test of time and the pressures of life. If you need to go back and firm up any areas of your life and strengthen and correct unstable core values, practices and beliefs, rather than trying to hide weaknesses or flaws, for eventually the cracks will show and whatever you’ve built will likely fall over.
Remember, “If you have the foundations right, the rest you can build on!”
Jesus said it this way, “Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:47-49)
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2)
Prayer: Lord I’m choosing to make you my final authority and to base my life upon who you are and what you say about me. Please help me to build, and if need be to strengthen my foundations in you so that I can continue to build strongly regardless of what may be going on around me. In Jesus name Amen.
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