Evaluating Your Foundations

Good morning! I hope you had a refreshing weekend.

Over the past four months, God has been leading me through a time of deep evaluation. This time began with a very simple question: “Am I the Lord over every kingdom of your heart?” As you might expect my immediate response was: “of course You are!” When the question was posed to me again, I knew it was time to look deeper.

As I have continued on this journey I have been led to look at areas that I would never have considered. Things like my philosophy of ministry, my traditions and even my doctrinal beliefs/interpretations have been brought into this process.

It is amazing to realize how much of our “understanding” comes from what others have told us. This is a natural process that begins in the home…it is powerful by design. Sadly, too many of us never take the time as adults to really understand the real reasons we hold these “truths” to be truth. We never really go through the process of truly understanding why we believe what we believe. Notice the following verse from Proverbs:

Proverbs 14:15 (NLT)
Only simpletons believe everything they are told! The prudent carefully consider their steps.

In this time of evaluation the Lord has led me to take this verse to heart when it comes to scripture. I was raised in, grew up in and have remained in a particular denomination’s teaching of the Bible my entire life, so naturally I look at the Bible through that lens. During this time of evaluation, God has caused me to step back and look at His word through a different lens….the lens of fresh perspective. I have been approaching scripture by leaving my understanding at the door and engaging as though I were a child reading those pages for the first time. I will have to be honest with you…my context, my understanding and my comfort have all been stretched. I find in many things, I still hold to the foundations that were laid for me throughout my lifetime, but in others I am seeing places that my understanding was incomplete.

As a natural result of this journey I also find myself stepping back and looking at my life’s work and choices through this new lens as well. Those things I don’t understand or have uncertainties with, I take to God. The real key for me is this: The choices I make in the coming years will probably be the most critical choices of my life. They are the choices that will determine my influence upon others and the legacy that I leave behind. Being one who is not willing to settle for “good enough”, I want to choose those steps that will be God’s “best.”

This week you may need to begin a journey of your own. Begin at the core of your heart and work your way outward. Allow God to ask the questions that challenge your thinking. Even if you change nothing, you will have grown simply by taking the journey.

Until next Monday, may God’s richest blessings be yours this week.

Carl