This week I was sitting and praying about what the Lord wanted me to write about and felt him lead me to share on being built on the foundation of Christ. Being built on his foundation is a process that we will always be in because every new opportunity, relationship, or area of life should begin on his foundation. When we are built on the foundation of Christ our building becomes steady. We are the building, the temple of Christ. This week we are going to talk about how Gods word encourages us to live as a holy temple built on the foundation of Christ.
Christ is a foundation worth building up from. 1 Corinthians 3:11 says “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the beginning of all things. Everything created first began with him. Christ foundation is one that doesn’t shift because he is consistent. One thing that my heart used to wonder is if Jesus could really be trusted. This reminds more of the analogy of being hooked in on a ropes course.
If you are ever on a ropes course, your goal is to obviously not fall. For safety reasons you are strapped into a harness clipped to a cable that is attached to the overarching wire. As you are going through a ropes course it feels like if you fall there is no way to get back up. Because you are connected to the cable, even if you make a wrong move, the cable can be trusted and you will not fall to the ground. A foundation built on Jesus is similar. When we stumble he catches us, he is a God that can be trusted because he is true to his word
With Jesus as our foundation his word tells us that we are the temple built upon it. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in your midst.” How kind of the Lord to call us his temple, the place that houses his spirit. As a temple that houses God’s spirit we are in charge of what it has to share space with.
I had an image in my head of waking up each morning with an emptied body that held just God’s spirit, everything we see, say, or hear, adds something into our temples. As I envisioned this I thought to myself, is what I’m putting in worthy to be in the same space as God’s spirit? Does the music I listen to align with a holy temple, do the thoughts that I think align with God’s word, do the images I see pair well with God’s standard? As I thought through that I realized that a lot of it didn’t.
When we are built on the foundation of Christ it is a foundation that shifts our desires to be built more like him. Ephesians 4:1 tells us to “Live a life worthy of the calling” God has given us. Being built on a firm foundation and seeing your body as a temple are the beginning stages of living a worthy life. Is the foundation you are built on or the temple that is your body, “living a life worthy of your calling?”
If your answer is yes then keep up the good work. God is faithful to reward obedience. If the answer is no then I would say you are not alone. Being steadfast in a walk with Jesus is forever a series of obedience and grace. God sees your heart, he knows you long to live for him, and even more so he is giving you the strength to do it. We could all use a little more encouragement on how to live from the foundation of Jesus.
Through these verses we have learned to build on a firm foundation, let the foundation lead to the Holy building that our bodies are, and live out our purpose with the holy temples God has given us. In simpler terms this is what we stand on, who we are, and how we live our lives for Jesus.
XO Scarlet