Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken: The Process
This post was initially supposed to go up last week but because of recent events, I took a week off. I actually debated writing about death and everything death brings along with itself but I decided to address that at a different time. Cheers to Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken part 2.
In the first installment, I discussed my battle with this topic and introduced the revelation of this topic. Which is that God is my foundation, He is the one thing that cannot be bowed, bent, or broken. I debated going into details, but I didn't want to bombard you with too much information in one seating. Today we are going to be talking about how Jesus is the foundation of my life and how He lays down this foundation.
In Since U Been Gone, I briefly discussed the importance of being excellent. Not perfect but excellent. Excellence in the work you produce, excellence in your integrity, and excellence in everything that is attached to your name. For something to be excellent, it has to be excellent from top to bottom, it has to be excellent from start to finish. By all accounts and by what we know about God, He produces excellence. Everything attached to the name of God is excellent. He does nothing subpar. He does nothing haphazardly because, by His nature, He can not be a part of something, and it is not excellent. Sidebar, this is why God is continually refining us and molding us because He wants us to look like Him. For that to happen, you have to surrender to Him over and over again.
So, if God is a part of something, it is going to be excellence from start to finish, but what happens when you weren't with God from the beginning of your life? What happens when God didn't lay the foundation for your habits, mindsets, and patterns? What happens when you are living a life that is below the standard? The answer is simple - your foundation will have to be stripped away for you to start living at the level that you are called to be on.
There is a parable in the Bible about two houses built on different foundations (Matthew 7:24-27, Luke 6:46-49). One house was built on sand, and the other was built on a rock. When the storm came, the house built on sand started to sink because its foundation could not withstand the turmoil brought upon it. On the other hand, the house built on a rock, stood firm during the storm because it was built on a firm foundation. A foundation that could not be moved. For example, if you called in your favorite HGTV duo (cough cough Chip and Joanna) to remodel your house and turn into the house of your dreams. The most responsible thing for them to do is to check the foundation. The longevity or the excellency of your house will depend on the standard and condition of your foundation. Likewise, because Jesus is an excellent carpenter (pun intended), if He sees that your foundation is below the standard, it is His duty and responsibility to fix it. Jesus needs to remove your current foundation and lay His own foundation brick by brick because He can't build on a foundation that is not His own. Jesus can't start excellent work on something subpar. He wants to lay bricks of discipline, consistency, faithfulness, love, etc.
A few weeks ago, my friends and I were talking about skin purging the other day. Skin purging is when you get a sudden influx of acne because you add a new product to your face or after getting an extensive facial. The difference between skin purging and regular acne breakouts is that during skin purging the product is trying to remove the impurities in your skin. It is bringing things to the surface that you didn't know were there to ultimately improve the health and appearance of your skin. But if you stop using the product before it gets a chance to change your skin, you will be stuck with the scars of the purging but not the evidence of change it was attached to. So don't give up in the middle of your purging season, allow God to refine you by allowing Jesus to relay your foundation.
“ A faith that cannot be shaken can only get there because it was so shaken that it becomes sure, certain, and steadfast. ”