The Cracks In Your Wall
Imagine that you woke up this morning to find plaster crumbled on the living room floor and a small hole and crack in the wall. Not how you wanted to start your day. You sweep up the crumbs, so your cats don’t track them all through the house. The damage appears to be minor; you plan to fix it yourself after work by filling the hole, patching the crack, and then sanding and repainting the damaged area. The repair took longer than you hoped, but once done, you are pleased how it looks.
However, several weeks later, much to your dismay, once again there is a crack in that same wall. This time, rather than fix yourself, you call a professional. This handyman comes to your house and after a lengthy inspection tells you that your problem isn’t with the wall, but rather it is due to a shifting foundation. Your house’s foundation is cracked, thus causing it to shift, which in turn causes the plaster to crack. You need to stabilize your foundation first and then fix the cracks in the walls. If you do not first fix your foundation you will forever be repairing the cracks in your walls.
Just as an unstable foundation in your house can cause all kinds of structural and interior problems, if you build your life upon the wrong foundation, you too will experience all kinds of “cracks and holes” in your walls. So often we rely on man and manmade things – job, financial security, investment portfolio, good health, good looks, family, reputation, government, etc. – only to have them fail and then we find ourselves sitting amongst a pile of bricks that has crumbled all around us.
This principle of building our lives on Jesus’ foundation is about an attitude and a willingness to be obedient to God and God’s Word. It is the answer to this question, “Do you trust more in God and His promises or man and manmade things?
Jesus taught on this principle. In Matthew 7:24-27 we read these words – “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed. And its collapse was great!”
Today I encourage you to look at your own life and before you repair the cracked walls you should check to see that your foundation is on solid ground. Without a solid foundation the walls will just crack again and again. Where is your foundation weak? What do you need to do to shore it up? Did you know that “shore” has two very different usages? When used as a noun it usually references the land at the edge of the body of water. But, as a verb, it typically means to prop up, as in “We used wooden beams to shore up the damaged wall.”
I will end with these lyrics, “On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand,” from the hymn “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” written by Edward Mote. Is your foundation built upon solid rock or shifting sand? Ask God today to give you a faith that helps you anchor yourself to His firm foundation, to shore you up. Then you can begin to repair the cracks in your walls.
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