Cracks in our Foundation

Did you realize your faith was built on a foundation? And that the strength of your faith is dependent on how solid your foundation is?

One thing I share about my faith is that God has taken a lot of time building different parts of my foundation. And I didn’t enjoy a single minute of it, but I wouldn’t trade the outcome for anything in this world.

For instance…the submissive wife. Ok, so what God had to work with was a woman who was independent, strong willed, self-sufficient, a leader and could be sort of bossy. At that time in my life, I perceived being a submissive wife as being weak, a doormat for a man to walk all over. Sorry, God, but you had a mighty work to do. Around my early-ish 30’s, I started to want to be married. Before then, I didn’t like being alone, but marriage didn’t seem that appealing either. God heard that desire, probably sighed, rolled up His sleeves and said bless her heart, this is going to be uncomfortable…for her. But, over the next few years, He showed me what it really looked like to be a Godly wife. Being submissive, it wasn’t weak, it took strength to share your perspective and then trust your husband to make the right decisions. What I really learned was to trust God. He kept me single, and He taught me by calling me to submit to Him. Trust Him. Wait on Him. Follow Him. Trust His order of things. It wasn’t easy waiting on the Lord, the desire to be married had become intense, the loneliness I felt was sometimes overwhelming. But I waited patiently. By patient I mean, I waited with tears and frustration. But God got me there, God had prepared me to be a godly wife.

But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. – 1 Corinthians 11:3

I’ve shared before that I can be immovable when it comes to a word or revelation from God. God did that. Before He did this, I second guessed, I would waiver. But, God wanted to change that in me. When God pointed out my husband, it didn’t make any sense. First of all, I didn’t know him. Second, he completely rejected me. Next, he struggles with drug use. Trust me, outside looking in, this made no sense. My friends didn’t understand, strangers didn’t understand. But, I stood, immovable on what God had said. Make no mistake, this was a hard walk. To be rejected…hurts! But I could feel God teaching me something, so I hung in there. I had this deep desire to have what He wanted to give me. And I got it, when God speaks, you can’t move me. And regardless of the bumps in my marriage due to the drugs, I can now fully see how my husband was built for me and me for him.

So, you can see there are cracks in our foundation that only God can reset. It is unbelievably uncomfortable. When the Word says we will be refined in the fire, He isn’t kidding. But then it goes on to share that the purpose of this is for your faith to remain strong through many trials. And trials you will have in this life.

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. – 1 Peter 1:7

The walk of a Christian cannot be represented by rainbows and unicorns. The Christian walk is hard. But, we have God on our side, investing in our eternity, strengthening us to withstand what this world will try to use to tear us down. Like I said near the beginning, I did not enjoy being refined, but I wouldn’t trade the foundation I have now for anything this world could ever offer me.

So, are you willing to be taught in the fire? Are you willing to walk out difficult times knowing God is using that to strengthen you? Will you pray about the cracks in your foundation and ask God to repair them? Or does that seem too much for you?