Unshakable Foundations

Imagine a beach.

In the middle of the beach is a rock, the foundation of our lives that is in Christ Jesus. The beach is filled with sand, the world’s attempt at trying to be a rock.

Imagine one grain of sand next to one rock. (I’m not talking about a pebble, or a stone you can easily pick up and throw. I’m talking about one of those huge boulders you find on the beach, those ones that despite it being bigger than yourself, you think you can move. Maybe with an army of friends to help you, it might move. Yet no matter how hard you push and dig into the sand to move it, you cannot. The rock is Unshakable, you might say.) Picturing the scene?

How many grains of sand are needed to equate to the size of one rock? You can press sand into the size of a rock, but it will never have the strength of a rock. It has no substance to hold it together, and ultimately it will just end up crumbling. Think about those ‘sand bombs’ we all make at the beach. You get a bit of wet sand, a bit of dry sand, you pat it together, sculpt it into what looks like the perfect ball. But what happens when you throw it? It breaks, and it falls apart.

Jesus tells us to build our foundations upon the rock, not the sand.

Matthew 7:24-27

“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. 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. 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. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

As Christians, I think there is another tendency we fall into. We hear the words of God and we do choose to build our house on the rock. But where we’re going wrong is the building material. How often do we try to build up our lives through the world? How often do we choose to make our house out of sand rather than rock? Once we have built our foundations on the rock, what good is sand to us? For a while, we may think that we can have a house of sand, because our foundation is on the rock and we are protected from the tide washing it away. But what about the rain? What about the storms? One way or another, the sand will be washed and blown away. Only the rock remains. It’s all too easy to look at the mass of sand surrounding our foundation on the beach, to take the ‘easiest’ option and hope God won’t notice us using sand to build up our house. But the easiest option often isn’t the best option. The rocks are harder to find, sometimes they take a long time to get to, even if they are in sight, and sometimes they are buried deep under the sand. But how much more worth is the search for the rocks when we put them on our foundation, and they stay, they endure even the most vicious of storms.

Take a look at your ‘house’ right now. Where are you building your life out of sand? Ask God to show you and help you. He is the sovereign Architect of the house. Sand is not in His design.

There are definite parts of my house that are built with sand. Oh how its frustrates me that I guard the sand on my house, that I don’t want God to take it away. It’s comfortable and it’s familiar. There’s a storm brewing outside my house and I know it’s only a matter of time before the sand is blown away. God offers us the rocks before the storm comes, but often we are either too scared, or just have grown to love the sand so much that we don’t reach out and take them. Sometimes it’s necessary for the the storm to come, I think that’s where the ”breakdown before the breakthrough” phrase can be appropriately used. It’s not a bad thing, but God does consistently offer us the less painful option. To repair and solidify our house before the storm arrives.

Join me in evaluating your own house. Look where you’re building it out of sand. Ask God to help you trust Him enough to let go of the sand, and to take the rocks. I find myself in a frequently frustrating situation. More than anything do I want to give up all the sand in my house, truly, genuinely I don’t want it there. But why can I not give it up? My main response is prayer. To continuously ask God to help me want to give it up. To die more to my worldly desires each day, and to rise more to life in Christ. To live under the freedom I have been given. It’s a journey, in my human weakness, I am not prepared to give up all the sand of my house right now, but steadily I am striving to give up more of it. And with that surrender will come freedom.

The rocks have already been bought at a costly price for us. They are the most beautiful and strong rocks we can have. Let’s start using them, and not settling for second best, when Jesus died so that we can build our houses with first prize.

A fresh start?

It’s that time of year again, Christmas has come and gone, we’ve welcomed in the New Year, and probably made some New Year Resolutions that we’ve either already broken, or feel far less enthusiastic about carrying out now we are a week or so in to it, compared to the first five minutes of the New Year where we’ve had no chance to break any of them so are filled with encouragement at how well we are doing.

The way I see it, and I think the truth of it is, on New Years Eve, millions of people making ‘a fresh start’ through  resolutions (probably very structured, strict ones) which they believe ”will make them a better person, and help them achieve happiness, success and perfection.” At least, that’s how I often feel..”this year I’m going to do this, learn that, stop doing that, achieve this and then everything will be great”…. Contemplating my New Year’s Resolutions this year I saw myself falling into the same attitude, setting myself the unrealistic goals in which I will just end up being disheartened when I don’t achieve. I’d say sense of failure is the most self-condemning attitude we as humans have. One that slowly and subconsciously destroys us. Failure to be the perfect person we think we ought to be. And a corrupted view of what a ‘perfect’ person is. Yet too often we try and ‘perfect’ our lives by rooting ourselves in the things of this world. Financial stability, acceptance by other people, a successful job, the ‘perfect’ appearance, the perfect guy/girl…things which no matter how many we can tick off our list, will never fully satisfy us.

I’d like you to think about the New Year’s Resolutions you’ve made. Are they deepening your roots in the world, or in Jesus? Will they make you look more like world, or more like Jesus?

God is the only one who can fully satisfy us. Even if we achieve the image of ”worldly perfection” that we often continue to idolise, what is it worth, really?

Luke 9:23- 25 ‘Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self”?’

God’s idea of a New Year Resolution worth making is very different to the ones we often make, and He also looks at the ‘success’ of these resolutions very differently. When we fail, God doesn’t give up on us. We often quickly give up on ourselves, but He doesn’t give up on us, He doesn’t condemn us as we condemn ourselves, but He encourages us to persevere. To try and try again. The simple resolution we need to make is to work on becoming more like Christ. He doesn’t give us one chance. He doesn’t give us two. Or three. He gives us endless chances. That’s why He is a God of GRACE. We are imperfect, we will fail, God knows that, hence why He sent Jesus to die for us, to cover us for all our past sins, our current ones and the ones to come. Quite simply, we NEED Jesus. We need the second, third, nine-hundredth and ninety nine chances that through Jesus, God offers us.

So, don’t be disheartened by failure. I found a saying ”Failure is not the falling down, it’s the refusing to get up.” Take today as a fresh start.  If you feel like you’ve fallen down, may today, as you read this, be the day you choose to stand up. And know that God’s hand is outstretched to you, waiting for you to grab hold so He can help pull you up.

Let this year be one not dictated by too ambitious resolutions that are likely to not be achieved, or by ones that are only desirable from a worldly perspective. Instead, surrender yourself to God and let Him transform you to be more like Christ. May your resolution be to let God have control to transform you in His own way, in His perfect timing, ”being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

God’s grace gives us the fresh start we want and need. Ask Him to show you how you need to be refreshed, from His perspective not yours. Then take it. When you slip up, take it again. And again. And again.