DAILY READING
REFLECTION
A Firm Foundation?
by Mary Alice McGinnis
When my kids were small, our favorite family vacations were going to the beach. We spent hours soaking up the sun, riding the waves and playing in the sand. Along with our sunscreen, beach chairs and towels, we made sure to bring along plenty of sandcastle making tools.
We would spend hours digging up sand, building it up into the shape of an elaborate castle, with a moat all around it to “protect it” from the waves. We always knew eventually the walls and towers of our brilliant sandcastle would succumb to the forces of simple erosion, high tide, or the full-on assault of pounding waves.
Yet when we saw the threat of all our hard work starting to crumble, we frantically began to do all we could to stop the inevitable.
Doesn’t this sound a lot like what we do in life? At least for me, I see how often I try to build my life on the shifting sands of success, achievement, financial security, health, accolades, or significance.
It caused me to ponder, when I am feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and “frantic” to hold it all together, what is really at the core of where I have laid my foundation? When I see the waves of life threatening to undo me, where I am placing my trust?
Today’s verse is one that I need so desperately to commit to memory.
Paul first tells us: “He will also keep you firm . . .”
Who is it that is doing the action? God!!
Notice it says ALSO, which means in addition to everything else God has done, is doing and will continue to do for you and me, He will ALSO “keep you firm," which means solid, stable, immovable, steadfast.
Any effort to build a firm foundation on our own is like building a sandcastle in the shifting sands. God is the only one who can keep us firm, as we are planted on Him, the rock eternal.
How long can we be assured of this strong, sure, firm, and steady foundation of our God, the solid rock?
The next phrase says, “to the end.”
Why? Because it is not dependent upon us. At the center of all our striving, looking for a firm place to stand, we know deep down that we all fall tragically short. We know we do not measure up. We know we don’t always do the right things. If our hope for security is based upon how we measure up to perfection, we instinctively know in the end, it is all futile.
That is why the last phrase of this verse is so powerful!!
". . . so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He will keep us firm to the end because Jesus paid the price for us! Remember Jesus’ words on the cross? IT IS FINISHED! Jesus completed what we could never do. He lived the perfect life, then He laid it down. He stands before the final judgement seat for all of us, and God sees us now as blameless, pure, and free from accusation.
"But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:22)
"And to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." (Ephesians 5:27)
What better place to build my life than upon the love of Jesus, the only eternal firm foundation!
"And He will also confirm you to the end [keeping you strong and free of any accusation, so that you will be] blameless and beyond reproach in the day [of the return] of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 1:8 Amplified version)
PRAYER
When life seems uncertain, when I feel like I am coming undone, when I feel the threat of insecurity like pounding waves all around me, when I hear the voice of the accuser, Lord, place me once again at the foot of the cross and ground me on the solid, immovable rock of that firm foundation! Keep me firm until the end!
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