How Firm A Foundation

I said in one of my last few posts that I was going to stop deliberating so much and just write.  That is much easier said than done for me.  However I want to capture what is going through my head and heart right now, so here goes.

God often speaks to me through songs.  A few minutes ago I was listening to a song that includes these lyrics:

I can sense in my spirit a blessing is coming and it won't be long.
I expect it any day now.  It's on the way!
I can feel it down in my spirit...

That last line especially arrested me.  I could almost visualize reaching deep inside myself, past the hurt and fear and pain, to a place of hope and trust in God.  From there, I began to think about what was "down in my spirit" and another image formed.  It was of a slab of concrete. That's all, a blank slab.  But I knew the slab had once been a building.  A storm had come, perhaps the destructive and devastating tornadoes of 27 April 2011.  All that made the building recognizable was gone.  No items to identify what the building had been or what rooms had been lost.  No walls.  No roof.  But the foundation remains.  In the foundation lies the potential to rebuild.  It might be the same type of building again or something completely different, but as long as the foundation remains, the building can rise again.

And so it is with us.  Our desire may be to avoid negative things in life, but that is not our lot.  Troubles are a part of life.  Sometimes God delivers us from hardships, but sometimes He delivers us in them, that is, He gives us the wherewithal to endure in the midst of the storm.  And if like Job we lose everything, so too like Job we can be restored because our Foundation is sure.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8 NLT

So when the storms come in our lives, we must trust our Foundation.  No matter how fierce the storm, our
Foundation is secure.  All that we value - status, possessions, people, our health, even our life - may be lost.  All, that is, except Christ.  No matter our circumstances, He is with us.  Even in death, He tells us in John 14:2, 3 that He has prepared a place for us and that He will take us there.

I've never been good with closings, so I'll stop abruptly :-) and conclude with these verses.

"We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—" 2 Corinthians 4:8, 9 NKJV