Is Your Foundation Faulty?

Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

Regardless of the size or type of structure, when you plan to build, one of the most important steps is laying a solid foundation, for if that is faulty -- either built on unsuitable material or poorly laid -- the whole building will be unsound and will develop cracks, weaknesses and structural damage as time goes on.

Building on a sure foundation was one of the analogies Jesus used when He walked the earth. He wasn't referring to a physical house, however, but to a person's spiritual life, and the character it produces.

One of the names the Bible gives to God is that of Foundation Stone. And it talks about how we often forsake a proper foundation and lay one that is false or faulty. We can do that by worshipping gods other than Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God.

Jesus tells us salvation is a free gift. We can't earn it; we can only receive it by faith by accepting His payment for sin on the Cross for the sin in our own lives. Other gods tell us we have to earn salvation by good works, by following certain rules and regulations, by depending on our own righteousness. When we build their way, we discover we're never quite good enough or there's always one more rule or level to attain or we worry that when we sin, we have to balance the scales by doing certain other things to make up for it ... but how much is enough to cover the sin? Who sets those standards and can we ever be sure they're right? We're continually running around trying to patch the cracks that are threatening to turn our lives into a mountain of crumbling concrete.

We can lay a faulty foundation by turning our backs on God and building our lives on the god of self -- our wishes, our pleasures, our independence, our own lusts, or on things the world has to offer. But these other foundations are also poor substitutions for the real thing, for they're built on lies -- shifting sand -- that either leads us down a trail to the living dead where the house of our lives never really gets built or it washes away in a crisis and leaves nothing but ruin behind.

When we build our lives on the true Foundation Stone ... the One who paid the price for our sins and gives us power to live a new life above the sinful nature we inherited from Adam, the first created man, nothing can shift it ... because it's built on what's solid, immovable, enduring and eternal.

God, our Foundation Stone is trustworthy. His Word, the Bible says, never fails; it will endure forever. His Promises are all fulfilled in Christ. When we build our lives on Him, we build on righteousness. We build on truth. We build on what existed before there was a world and men and on what will be here when this earth passes away. When crises hit, no matter how much our lives are shaken, that bedrock foundation holds firm ... and it lets us build a character and faith in our own lives to match.

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