Firm Foundations

As we turned into February, I had a desire to put a new cover photo on Facebook with the words “firm foundations in February” but it felt too cheesy. However, I have kept being drawn back to Psalm 1:1-3 and the picture of the tree, echoed here in Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

The picture of people as being like a tree is echoed in different places in scripture. The verses I have kept coming back to in Psalm 1 are rich. I will not go into the first bit just now but I have dined on these scriptures a lot recently.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

It does not take a prophet to understand that we are in turbulent times right now. As I have been chewing on these verses and thinking about firm foundations, I have been struck by the need for all of us to reassess where we are rooted. The word “rooted” has been going round in my head. I am reminded of the parable of the sower and what happened to the seed whose roots were shallow, not in good soil. Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21 shows us the picture of this seed and the result of the shallow roots. It is not enough that we have roots, they must go deep.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

As I was ministering last night, teaching on how to hear from God, one of the men shared what he had got, which prompted me to actually put “pen to paper” and write this encouragement, as much for myself! God said to him “until the foundations are right, you can’t even lay the first stone”. He works in a garden landscaping business and so it made sense to him as he thought about laying slabs or paving stones. He used the phrase “digging out” to describe the hard work of preparing the ground ready to lay the slabs. Until the ground is prepared, there is no point starting to lay the slabs as later they will just move. The phrase I had at the beginning of the month was ‘firm foundations’. Some of us would like the process of securing our foundations to be quicker and I think in our speedy world, the temptation has been to shortcut some of what our forefathers knew in terms of discipleship, in the name of throwing out legalism and control. In Jeremiah 6:16 we are reminded to “go back to basics”:

Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Hebrews 5:12-14 through to Hebrews 6:1-2 talks about foundational teaching that is key for us in the early days of our faith. I wonder how many of us have a solid grounding in what the writer calls “basic principles”. I will not, for the sake of space, try and unpack them here but you might like to have a look for yourself.

When I looked up the words used for ‘rooted’, or the similar scriptures that talk about being ‘grounded’ or ‘established’, the words used to describe the meaning are encouraging in the face of any coming turbulence:

Rooted, grounded, sure, certain, steadfast, firm, constant, stable, strengthened, constant, fixed, immovable, strong, resolute, established.

There is no doubt that difficult times are coming, for all of us but specifically for those who hold fast to the word of God and will not compromise. So we need something that will hold us steady. We need deep roots. But deep into what?

As we look at the verses I started with, we see that the first thing is our faith in God, our trust in the One who is above all of what is going on around us. He is on his throne, he is not moving, he is not shaking – his kingdom is an unshakeable kingdom (Hebrews 12:28), his government and peace, we are told in Isaiah 9 are ever increasing, not shrinking. So where are we putting our faith in these times? In the government, in the money we have stored in the bank or perhaps the stockpiled food in our cupboards, in our family and friends, or something else? In and of themselves these things are not necessarily wrong or bad, but they are all shakeable things. A repeated theme throughout scripture is that putting our trust in the Lord is a sure foundation, one that will not put us to shame. Step one then, have we put your faith completely in God? Believing in God is not a half-hearted measure but a full transfer from being part of one kingdom to being part of a different kingdom. Working out my salvation is an incremental thing in the sense that as I become aware of areas that I have not surrendered to his Lordship, his rule and reign, I have the opportunity to allow his government in my life to increase, and his peace expands in me too. Isaiah 28:16 reminds us of our solid ground if we have made faith in him our foundation:

Therefore, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken.

“A firm and tested stone, safe to build on”. A place where we will “never be shaken”. That sounds like a solid move, a wise move to me!

The next thing that we need to look at is the foundation of what exactly we believe. I say I believe in God, that he is my firm foundation but lots of my beliefs, the truths that I have based my life on, have been “dug up” and reset as I have followed God for the last 24+ years, and particularly in this last few years as God prepares his people. And he is still rewiring my thinking, re-establishing me … in what? In the truth, that is found in his word, in scripture. It is a time to be solidly grounded in what the word of God actually says, not what we think it says. It is the belt of truth that holds everything together in the armour of God quoted in Ephesians 6. Second Peter is a book that is written to believers in turbulent times and so has some good stuff for us in this time. In 2 Peter 1:12 we see that truth is a place of stability.

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.

Being established in truth means we won’t be swayed by deception, by the lies of the enemy, or by our circumstances. Regardless of what our circumstances look like, what God says about the situation matters more. God’s truth is a higher truth. We know that according to Hebrews 6:17-20 God’s word, his promise which is a sure thing because he cannot lie, because his character is certain, fills us with hope and becomes

a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul

What promises are we putting your hope in? Are they sure and certain? Are they based in the reality of a unshakeable kingdom? In the solidity of a king who does not lie, who is “faithful and true”? In the truth of the word of God. Jesus IS truth. But truth is not truth if it is only a nebulous truth vaguely in our head. Peter talks about being established in truth. Truth that I know in my head but not in the depths of my being does not bring the freedom promised in John 8:32. It has to be a reality in my heart, it is the truth that is embedded in my heart that impacts how I live. Proverbs 23:7 reads “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” Psalm 15 asks who may dwell with the Lord on his holy hill, in his tent? A thought reminiscent of Psalm 91:1, that place of safety. I love how the Amplified version answers this query in verse 2:

He who walks with integrity and strength of character, and works righteousness, And speaks and holds truth in his heart.

We need to speak and hold truth in our heart, not just recite the scriptures but live in them. That will hold us steady. The time to be established in truth is now, not when turbulence hits. Jesus talked in the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7, about being built on the rock of his word. It is too late to build on the rock when the storm has already hit! He makes the point that it is not enough to just know his word, we have to put it into practice, to build it into our lives. The Message version puts this point across well. The word of God is not an extra, or something to display in our homes, but to establish deep in our lives. Matthew 7:24-25 says:

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

What are we building our life on right now? Is it solid ground? Even if you know and follow Jesus, even if you have followed him for years, you might like to ask God if there are any lies that you are believing. You might like to ask him what truths he wants to establish in your life, or re-establish right now. I am! Sometimes foundations get crumbly over time and need to be re-dug, revisited! What truths have been established in our heart, in our journey with God? What truths are still to be established? I have found over the years that some truths are harder to get hold of that others and it takes a bit of work to dig them in.

In 2 Peter 1:12 some versions talk about “present truth”, there are truths I need to know right now, in this moment, relevant to today that cause me to ask God, “What truth do you want me to know today?”

There are many more things I could talk about in terms of staying rooted but for now the last scripture I want to consider is from Paul as he seeks to strengthen the Ephesian church in his prayers. Ephesians 3:16-19 helps us remember that this strength, this establishing is a work of the Holy Spirit within us and that as we allow the work of the Spirit within us, Christ, the fullness of who he is, is taking up residence in our hearts, filling us up with all of him.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Wow! Just think about what we know of who Christ is: think of the fruits of the spirit for example and the different names of Jesus. That is what is being put in the depths of our heart. He is not just near, he is in us, and we are in him. You can’t get much closer than that. There is no safer, more secure place to be than “in Christ” right now. John 14:20 affirms this as a reality for his disciples as he talks about the time after his resurrection and ascension with them.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

However, not only are we established in Christ and he in us, in faith, in truth, but we are “rooted and established in love”. The love of Christ that is limitless in every direction, the love of Christ that compelled him to come to earth, the love of Christ that carried him to the cross and beyond. The knowledge, the tangible, experiential knowledge of that love, will hold us secure as our hearts sing “I am loved by God” in the face of all that comes at us. 1 John 4:15-16 expands the point about being in God by reminding us that this love is one we can rely on, put our trust in.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

This is no earthly love that is flaky and inconsistent. It is a sure thing, immovable. It is who he is, just like he is truth, he IS love. It is not something he puts on sometimes, it is core to who he is. For those who make him Lord, who fear him above all else, he promises in Psalm 103:17 that his love is unwavering.

But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,

That his love is steadfast and enduring towards his people is repeated again and again through the scriptures. Whatever comes our way this year, whatever turbulent waves we have to ride in our life, now or in the future, let’s hold fast to the thought expressed in Lamentations 3:22-24, which was his declaration even as Jeremiah considered the turbulence the people of God were experiencing at the time, and let’s make this our declaration:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself,

“The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”