Strengthening Our Spiritual Foundation

Roots and Foundations

Roots anchor us in an environment ideally intended for growth, maturity, and fruitfulness.

Foundations establish in us a position of strength and steadfastness while facilitating the required support for expansion and development.

Both require meaningful depth in accordance with the dimension of strength, power and fruitfulness or the height and expansiveness they are designed to support.

When compared to a temporary structure with a smaller footprint, an entity which is designed to tower to great heights will need a stronger and deeper foundation to sustain its endurance and to carry the weight of its intended mandate.  The roots of a blade of lawn grass could not sustain the mandate of an oak tree.

Therefore, the degree of impact, the intended capacity, the expected fruitfulness, and the extent of the scope of purpose are all direct determinants of the strength and depth of the root and foundation systems which must be established to realize success.

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The Price of a Weak Personal Foundation

We are all expected to walk in light and truth with the Word of God as our foundation (Psalm 119:105). We are rooted and established in His love, which we know to be steadfast and the truest example of faithfulness. It therefore follows that a cursory glance, infrequent study, shallow knowledge and misused or non- application of the Word of God will lead us to have a weak and unstable foundation.

At the root of our existence is our relationship with God, and a sincere and acute awareness that He is the supreme power who is in control of all things. We, as the extension of His authority on earth, by the mandate of earthly dominion (Genesis 1:26), must ensure that our personal momentum remains focused in the pursuit and embodiment of His will.  Outside of that, our foundation becomes shaky at best or stubbornly grounded in ways of being that lead to our demise, sometimes slowly, sometimes swiftly, but with an inevitable surety. (Romans 6:23; Proverbs 2:21-22)

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A Godly Foundation for our Children

For those of us blessed with the inheritance of children (Psalm 127: 3- 5), we are admonished in the Word to train up our children in the way they should go so that they will not depart from solid foundational principles we impart to them in their early years (Proverbs 22:6). Our training must include the teachings of the Word of God with equivalent, if not more frequency and sincerity, as the mundane do’s and don’ts of applying wisdom to navigate everyday physical life. We need to structure their lives to build quality spiritual habits which will remain at the core of their hearts.

Strengthening Our Personal Spiritual Foundations

The Word of God implores us to seek God first before anything else (Matthew 6:33), applying wisdom and understanding. As a foundational principle, we are taught in the Word that with all our acquisitions and with all the exploits we intend to pursue, to remember the importance of getting wisdom and understanding and to revere them dearly in our hearts (Proverbs 4: 5 -9). Godly fear and reverence are the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10), which ignites a desire for His Word, His presence, and an alignment of our will with His divine will. This is at the core of establishing a powerful personal foundation.

The Bible in Ephesians beautifully and powerfully outlines that we are rooted and established in God’s love, the all-encompassing magnitude of which we need power through the Holy Spirit to fully grasp:

“…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.” Ephesians 3:17 – 19

We are also assured by the Psalmist in Psalm 1: 1- 3

"Blessed is the man.. whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers.

In Colossians 2: 6- 7, we are also encouraged to live our lives grounded in Christ, with a heart of thankfulness:

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Ideas to Strengthen Our Spiritual Foundation:

It is now for us to remain grounded in His love daily and to acknowledge that His love is truly unending, unwavering, faithful, and steadfast. A consistent desire of our soul for the wisdom and presence of the Kingdom of God becomes imperative. Our life experiences make this a sincere challenge in our limited humanity. We forget, we get inconsistent, we are exposed to contrary ideologies, and practical life leads us to handle competing priorities. However, to sustain a solid personal foundation, and ensure we remain rooted in Him, we must diligently and consistently nurture our relationship with God:

·       We must pray, fervently and effectually, by praying the promises in the Word of God relating to our requests and petitions, praying in the Spirit in unison with the will of God and with a continuous heart of thanksgiving. (Isaiah 55:11; Philippians 4:6; 1 John 5: 14 – 15; James 5:16 – 17)

·        To pray the Word, we need to read it. We must read the Word daily, meditate on it and allow ourselves to be open to the leading and interpretation of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 4:4)

·        We need to honor and be obedient to the will of God for our lives as it is revealed incrementally. We are not omniscient, so we never have all the answers at once, but we can be assured that our faith and trust is God is not wasted, because the earth is His and everything that is in it and God is bound by His Word. (Galatians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:58; Proverbs 3: 5 – 6; Psalm 24: 1- 2)

·        We must praise and acknowledge God on a daily basis for who He is and thank Him for creating us as an image extension of Himself on earth subject to His divine power (Psalm 107:1)

·        We must love Him, love others, and live with a level of compassion that mirrors God’s love for us and his light through us. (1 John 4: 7-8)

. We must also connect and fellowship with like hearted people who are also desirous of aligning fully with God's will for their lives.

An honest and sincere reflection on our own relationship with God will help us to personally determine just how solidly we are grounded. Then we can seek guidance on what we need to do to continuously strengthen and maintain our own roots and foundations in Him.

Blessings,

Catique.