What is Your Firm Foundation? by Lane Jordan Burday
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock (Matthew 7:24).
At church service this past Sunday, our new pastor, Daniel Floyd, spoke about building our lives on God’s true foundation. And yes, I have heard this preached before, and I have heard the above verse all my life.
But I never realized how important it is to build our lives on the firm foundation of God’s Word, His Truth, and His principles for a life that works.
Did you know that before a skyscraper can be built, the foundation must be measured and built first? In fact, the building will fall if the foundation is not deep enough or set on bedrock. Skyscrapers require a foundation that is anchored on bedrock because it must support the enormous load, the wind forces, and the soil settlement, and in some places like New York, it’s hard to find the bedrock because it is irregular. So, it took a lot of time and effort to find it. But the builders knew they could not build unless they found this solid rock.
Here is some interesting information. The Freedom Tower in New York is 1700 feet high, and they had to dig 70 feet below street level to lay its foundation. The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet high and has a foundation 55 feet below street level. That’s some deep digging!
Pastor Floyd then said,
“The higher you want to go, the deeper your foundation must go.” If you want a one-story kind of life, you only need a foundation that is two to four feet deep.
But if you want a skyscraper kind of life, for God to do anything you can’t think or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), then you’d better dig the foundation very deep in your life.
Do you want a marriage that goes the distance? Or children who love God and are building families according to the principles of God’s word? Then we must do the challenging work of living life God’s way. A life that can stand firm when the storms of life come. And to have a “peace that passes all human understanding” (Philippians 4:7).
If you want to build your life differently this year, then we have to do some digging, which no one sees, until we hit bedrock! Then you can build your life on a sure foundation. But here is a problem: John Maxwell says, “Do you have uphill dreams? Or downhill habits!” Yes, it’s so much easier not to work very hard and to keep bad habits but the results will not be as good.
In Timothy 4:7-8, Paul says that if you want godliness, you have to work at it. He commands believers to “Train yourself for godliness” rather than worldly pursuits, emphasizing that while physical training has limited benefit, “godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come,” stressing active spiritual discipline and obedience to God’s way.
2 Timothy 3:16 says that all “Scripture is God breathed and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives” (NLT). In other words, the Bible is true and is written by God Himself as His Holy Spirit inspired over 40 writers over many years.
When you get into God’s Word, I promise you will fall in love with it and with God Himself! Please give yourself some time every day this year to read His Word and to build your life on hard rock—not on shifty sand where you will fall. In one year, what a difference you will see in your life!
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