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.”
2 Peter 1:10 (NIV) “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.”
I read a story about the Millennium Tower, a fifty-eight story residential building, built in 2008, in San Francisco. There is one major problem with this building; it is crooked and sinking. When it was built, the engineers failed to dig deep enough, in order to lay a solid foundation. Now builders are looking to retrofit the foundation in order to prevent it from collapsing. The problem is the cost of this retrofit. It will be more than the entire cost of the building when it was built. What is the lesson here? Foundations truly matter.
With this global pandemic and the resultant fallout, now more than ever we see the need to have a firm foundation; a foundation built upon God and His Word. People are becoming sick and quite a growing number are dying. Others are losing jobs, businesses are coming to a halt, and economic systems are failing on a global scale. What makes it all worse, there seems to be no end in sight. This alone is enough to cause even the bravest among us to begin to lose hope, and to be fearful.
However, it is then when we must look to God and His promises to sustain us. In order to look to Him, we have to build a relationship with Him through Bible study, prayer, and church attendance. Even if the church attendance is online, via Zoom or like my church, where we have a drive-in service. Whatever means necessary, we need to firm up our foundation in God and His word.
We don’t know if this pandemic will lead to even greater crises or situations. Wherein life as we know it will no longer exist. Or if we will come through this time period and then enter a period of calm before yet another pandemic or crisis occurs. No one really knows for sure where we are in the timeline of Earth’s history, but one fact many Christians agree on: Christ will soon return. However, before He returns, there will be many times of great tribulation as He stated in His word. Knowing this, we all need to work on our foundations so that emotionally, mentally, physically and especially spiritually, we will be able to stand firm and committed to God. Things may get really crazy for just a while, or permanently. But either way, we need to make “our calling and election sure”. As His sons and daughters, we need to move forward in sharing His message to all the world.
Life’s foundational shaking and chaos will come to us all. The question will be, “what is your foundation built upon?” Is it built upon people/loved ones? A job/career? Position in the community/world? Money/possessions? If so, we all must realize all of these will eventually be shaken or perhaps gone. What then? My Brothers & Sisters, we must look to diligently build our foundation on God and His promises. Period.
God will be with us during this time and always. He loves us so much and wants to spend eternity with us. The events that are happening now, and in the future, must occur as His word says. But know He is there in the midst of it all. If we stay the course with Christ, we will be with Him in glory, and we will be able to say, it was worth it all!
Blessings,
Angelique~