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I always remember that passage in John 14:15 that says, “if you love me keep my commandments”, and I wonder what the things are that keep us from obeying His commandments. Many times, it is because we have conflicting or competing instructions. And we decide to follow the other one because the root of our knowledge of the God we serve, or our faith is not deep enough. So, this makes it very easy for any wind of thought to blow us wherever it may. There is this familiar biblical story of two men building their homes. Both men had access to the same materials. Both had choices as to where and how to build their homes. But one man’s house stood while the other man’s house collapsed in the great storm. The difference, we were told, was in the foundations. One built on the Rock, the Eternal Rock, the other on the shifting sands of time (Matthew 7:24-27). This story was told by our Lord Jesus Christ in regards to listening to and obeying the Word of God. However, the principle is time-tested and could be applied in many areas of our lives.
In this life we are all builders, building one thing or the other, and the Bible basically tells us that whatever we build stands a better chance of remaining standing if we build it on a solid foundation. The flip side is also true if the two men had the same foundation and one builds with superior materials while the other builds with inferior materials. It will not take long before the building with the inferior materials also collapses. So once the foundation is taken care of, we must also worry about the quality of materials that we are using to build. Sometime ago, I was watching a Nigerian TV channel, Channels TV, and the principal of a secondary school was asked his thoughts about why a block of classrooms in his school built in 2010 had collapsed in 2015. He asked the TV journalist to follow him. Then he said, “Look at this rafter here, it was supposed to be 2 X 4 but they used 2 X 2; look at the blocks, they were supposed to be 9-in blocks, but they used 6-in blocks. Why will the building not collapse?” In essence, the contractors collected money for a solid building but instead used inferior materials. It only took 5 years for the building to collapse. I can also bet that in this particular case both the foundation and the materials were inferior.
We, Christians, are building a temple for God. What is the foundation for our building? We must always build on the foundation that our Lord Jesus Christ has laid. Even after building on that foundation, we must take time to make sure that we build with quality materials. The Bible tells us that when the foundation is bad, the wind comes and blows it down. Similarly, when we use inferior materials, when the fire comes, it burns everything to ashes. There are different types and shades of thoughts out there. People with weak foundations can easily be swayed and unduly influenced by these dangerous thoughts. Christ is our firm foundation and only He can keep us standing when the tempters come.
My brothers and sisters, let us build our faith in a qualitative manner. We do that when we build on Christ’s firm foundation. No outside influence, no contrary spirit can derail us from doing our Father’s will. Our life will be lived in the fullness of God’s perfect will, working diligently for Him and walking in the light of His perfect plan. In our walk with Christ, the Bible enjoins us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” A life that is influenced by all sorts of ungodly ideas is a life that has a shaky foundation. A qualitative life builds the character and spiritual achievements of the godly life on that solid foundation as we walk with Him. At the end of our lives, the temple of our soul will be tested to see if it can withstand the fire test. We are told that if any of our work remains after it is tested with fire, then we will be rewarded. On the other hand, if a person’s temple is burned to the foundation, it indicates that a person did not live to potential. I plead with you brothers and sisters, let us live each of our days in joyful service by being intentional, diligent, hardworking, resourceful, and obedient servants of God, “For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” Ecclesiastes 12:14.
August 21, 2022 – Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
