Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Digging deep and building a strong foundation

For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like:
He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or founded on a rock. Luke 6:47-48 AMP

As we read this scripture, let's ask ourselves some questions. 
1. Am I regularly spending quality time with God, and not just bombarding him my prayer shopping list?
2. Am I listening to His words, or do I gloss over them and not really pay attention?
3. Am I diligently following His teachings in every area of my life?

Now we know we are not perfect. We will not succeed at doing putting God in His rightful place in our lives, every moment of every day. We sometimes choose, may be out of disobedience, or frustration, or disappointment or ignorance or even laziness and apathy to follow our own path and our own wisdom. Most times when we take our own path, the outcome is not the best outcome that God had planned for us.

Then he told them what they could expect for themselves: "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat—I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. Luke 9:23-24 The Message

We need to relinquish the driver's seat and start digging. And that digging is not just little chips at the surface to overturn the weeds in our life, rather it is digging out spade-fills of dirt, of the stuff that we have clogged up our lives with. As we dig that out, and dig down deep, we make more room for God and the good work He wants to do in our lives. 

Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth [the material for] a vessel for the silversmith [to work up]. Proverbs 25:4 AMP

That work of shaping us to be that house standing on the Rock. The house that could not shake or move when the torrent comes.

FOR GOD alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.
He only is my Rock and my Salvation, my Defense and my Fortress, I shall not be greatly moved.
Psalm 62:1-2 AMP

Furthermore, it is not all about what God wants to do in each of us, but also what He wants to do through us. 

So we are Christ’s ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We [as Christ’s personal representatives] beg you for His sake to lay hold of the divine favor [now offered you] and be reconciled to God.
For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness]. 
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 AMP

Question for today, how would you answer those three questions I posed above? There is always room for improvement for each of us. Let's ask God today to help us to do whatever it takes to allow Him to dig deeper into our lives and build a foundation that is so strong it can withstand any torrent that comes our way. And let's ask Him to help us be the best ambassadors for Christ that we can possibly be, in Jesus Name. Our world needs to see and hear about Jesus love.

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