Fixture or Foundation

Hey everyone and Happy September!! Hope everyone is doing well and getting settled back into the school year routine for those that have kiddos. It’s almost Fall y’all and I am so excited! This is my favorite time of year. ????

Today I want to share a lesson entitled: Fixture or Foundation.

The lessons that God gives me to share with you are ones that I have learned or am still learning. Some will not be pleasant to the ear and hard to accept. Trust me, I have been there!

But it wasn’t until I decided to listen to God concerning the areas of my life that He wasn’t pleased with…that my life changed for the better. I had to participate in my own transformation, and it required that I take my fingers out of my spiritual ears so I could hear what God was saying to me about me.

God’s truth is the only way we become free! And I’m soooo glad He loves us too much to leave us like we are!

I’ll start by sharing this scripture because encompasses everything I’ll discuss today.

Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)

24. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”.”

This scripture confirms that life is going to happen to all of us.  There is no way around it. Both houses in this scripture experienced the same the thing…. but the only difference between destruction or stability was its foundation. Who or what we choose to build our lives upon will determine whether we will be overtaken or still standing.

So, what does the sand represent in our lives…

Sand is when we use our intellect, our knowledge and desires to design our own life. We decide how our life should go, we are making all the executive decisions, so we build our life from the ground up without including God.

Now we have no problem including Him in the interior design plan, but just not the foundation. We want a quick fix, and we’re afraid that God will not agree with our blueprint, He’ll tell us no, or refuse to cosign on what we want so we take matters into our own hands. When we build our lives on the sand, we’re more concerned with pleasing ourselves. Being in charge is more important to us than having stability.

Here are some practical examples of what it looks like we attempt to add God as a fixture in the house we’ve built:

-Only pray only when we want God to do something for us, prayers are self-centered

-Have a Bible on the coffee table or the Bible app on our phone but never read it

-We can quote scriptures but are not living any of them, or we only know 1-2 scriptures but expect all the blessings

-We give God 1% of our lives and expect 100% of HIS benefits

-We want God to be our AAA, roadside assistance, in case we get in a jam that we can’t get ourselves out of

-We abandon God when He’s not moving fast enough or doesn’t give us what we want

-God and His word are no longer enough. We feel it’s outdated and antiquated, so in order to give us a better connection with our “highest self”, we start worshiping the THINGS God created instead of Him by engaging in new age practices and idol worship.

We want to decorate our lives with God and use His name to our advantage, but we don’t want a true relationship with Him. We don’t want him guiding us or charting the course of our lives, give us some “religion” but not a relationship.

In case you didn’t know God will not fit into our man-made boxes. We can’t sprinkle Him throughout our lives or keep him in our back pocket for a rainy day. He will not be manipulated or at our beck and call. He is not here to serve us; we are here to serve him. He will not be our last resort; He must be first.

So what does a Solid Foundation represent in our lives: 

As with a natural foundation, deciding to build our lives, the right way, God’s way is a totally different process. It’s not going to be that overnight or microwave experience we’re used to.

It takes time as He needs to cleanse our heart, renew our mind, teach us His ways, all while pouring His love on us. He is also going to require that we to listen to Him this time, let him set the pace and we follow his lead.

Let me warn you…. your flesh is going to have a fit because it’s used to being in the control but you already have proof that it doesn’t work when you run the show. You will feel antsy and like you’re moving at a snail’s pace…just take a deep breath and trust the master architect. He has the blueprint, He knows the masterpiece that he designed you to be.

So what does it look like when God is your Foundation:

-You live your life by His word and intentionally cultivate a daily relationship with him

-You consult God first about everything, ask for his wisdom, follow his lead

-You appreciate his no as much as you do his yes

-Sinning against God bothers you…don’t make sin a habit, you are quick to repent, accept correction and willing to do the work to change

-You are content, able to wait and be patient because you trust Him to take care of you

– You realize that you are gifted but He’s the giver and your reason for existence is to bring glory to him

-You live your life with an eternal perspective in mind, your ultimate goal is to make God proud

Life will still happen on a firm foundation but when things around us collapse, we will still be intact. We won’t go under or be swept away by our circumstances because our foundation is secure. You don’t have to worry about the things that were swept away…God is the master builder and he will see to it that our lives are rebuilt, restored, revived and redeemed bigger and better than before.

I will close with this….

Facing the things about ourselves that we’d rather not is the bravest and most respectful thing you can do for yourself and God. It lets God know that we want Him and all that comes with him.

There’s a certain level of blessings that we will never experience until we get real with God and real with ourselves

I encourage you to analyze your life and see what it’s built upon, if there ever was a time that we needed to make sure our lives are built on a genuine relationship with God, the time is now. Right now.

This world is unpredictable, dark and evil. It’s clearly built on the sand because it’s crumbling every day. But until we as a nation change our foundation, we will continue to see more of the same and unfortunately it will get worse.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is where we need to start and when I say we, I mean, the body of Christ. Those that say we belong to God, this scripture is speaking specifically to us.

We must willingly humble ourselves, pray, really seek God and repent of our sins…and live our lives differently.

We must be all in or not at all, there is no middle ground with God. And He won’t give into our ways, we must give in to His.

Please feel free to leave a comment if this blog resonates with you. I would love to hear your thoughts and will be sure to reply too!

Thanks for coming back again this month and hanging out with me. I love it when you do! I’ll see you in October.????

Journal and Greeting Card Giveaway: The first 10 people to leave a comment will receive a copy of my Party of ONE journal and a Party of ONE greeting card so that you can pay it forward. You will be contacted via email if you are one of the winners. You must reside in the USA.

You are celebrated and appreciated my fellow Party of ONE!

God’s best always,

Leslie