Have you ever had someone ask you for advice and you gave them a well-reasoned answer but in the end, they chose to ignore it because it didn’t fit what they wanted to do? I think many of us have experienced this and perhaps we have also ignored the advice of others because we didn’t like the answer. Too often we want to do what we want to do and we want others to agree with what we think is right. We do this in our spiritual lives as well. Rather than heeding the Word of God and conforming our lives to Christ, we try to fit Jesus into what we think is right. The Bible says this particular thought or action is a sin? “Just reinterpret the Bible,” some people will say. The words of Jesus don’t fit what you think is right? “Reimagine Jesus so that He fits your life,” others may argue. Many people have built their lives, not on Jesus but their selves and their ideas of right and wrong. They may sprinkle enough Jesus on their lives so that they seem “Christian” but have no serious intentions of building every aspect of their lives on Christ. Yet, Jesus is supposed to be the foundation.
We try to fit Christ into our lives, rather than conforming our lives to Him and The Word. In Luke 20:17 Jesus quotes the Old Testament (Psalm 118:22) and points to Himself as the cornerstone. He said, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus is the foundation of God’s plan and purposes in the world and His church. Everything is built on Him. This also leads me to see that my life should be built and lived on the foundation of Jesus Christ. From a practical perspective, this means that I conform my life to Christ, not the other way around. I should judge everything I say, think and do on Christ and should be willing to change certain aspects of my life when they are out of line with Christ. This is what a follower of Christ does. A follower of Christ is not content to simply live however they want and say a few words about Jesus so that others think they are Christians. No! A true follower of Christ wants to live for Jesus in all areas of their lives. If something is out of line, they seek to make a course correction.
How do you know if something is out of line? God often reveals this to us through prayer and reading the Word. In other cases, God uses other people to show us the error of our ways. We need people who are willing to be honest with us when we are not living our lives for Christ. In other cases, God allows us to see the fruit of our sinful living and we have to deal with the fallout of not living with Christ. Whatever the case, we should always resolve to live for Christ in all areas of our lives. I urge you to seek the Lord today and to ask Him to reveal any areas of your life that don’t conform to Jesus Christ. This is what it means to live our lives built on the foundation of Christ.
Pastor Donald Holliday