Have you ever watched a house being built? First comes the foundation, then soon the walls are assembled and put into place. The form of the house begins to take shape, and you can see what the architect had painstakingly designed. Those plans must be followed properly by the workers who assemble the frames of the outer walls, the hallways, the rooms and the windows. Not just any piece of wood is suitable for the frame. The materials should be straight and free of defects. The frame of the house will provide the critical structure that the rest of the house will rest on.
In a way your life is like a house. It starts out with a foundation and then piece by piece it is constructed on top of that foundation. The choices you make are tied to what material you decide to construct your life from. Do you want stability in your life? Happiness? What are you framing your life with?
What Should You Frame Your Life With?
Those things God has spoken to you, whether in His Word or to your heart.
Each piece is joined to another that is related to it to form a structure that will hold shape and stand on its own. That structure is anchored to a foundation point so that I can stand and rest securely.
The Foundation Is the Difference
Framing your life will take discipline and patience. Most of all, it will require you to do your part. You are not the supervisor giving instructions and sitting back waiting for the finished product to be completed. It is your life, you are the builder, and you supply part of the labor required.
In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus tells the story of the building of a house – one built by a wise man, and the other by a foolish man. Each man was building a house. The difference in the stability of each house was directly related to what it was built on – its foundation.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
In verse 24 Jesus notes that the firm foundation was a rock, something solid and immovable. He likens the rock to hearing His sayings and doing them. This approach to life provides that solid foundation. When the rain, floods and winds of life come, the house stands strong. That house is your life, built by your thoughts and actions. Whatever you do in life, you are constructing something. While in the moment it may not seem to mean anything, those actions you take are driving another nail or laying another brick in the construction of your life.
In verse 26 Jesus notes that the weak foundation results from hearing His sayings but not doing them. That lack of action on what is heard makes for an unstable base, just as sand has. It can hold no weight in place surely or take any stress. When the rain, floods and winds come – the house falls, and in a great way. Its lack of a solid foundation causes the walls to fall in on themselves, taking the structure down with them.
It’s important to notice that both the foolish and the wise man heard the same thing. It was what they did with what they heard that made the difference.
Think of it this way – both men went to Home Depot with the same shopping list for building materials. Each received all the materials on the list, and then headed out to build his own house. The first and most crucial decision each made was what to build his house on.
Both heard the same thing, and in turn had the same building materials. The difference between the two was the location each chose. Sand or rock. It came down to doing what each had heard Jesus speak about. The man that did what Jesus taught had the foundation of His words to build his life upon. The man who did not do what Jesus taught and decided to build his own way constructed his house, his life, on a base that was continually shifting and prone to failure when pressure was applied. He was deemed foolish to make such a choice.
When you are building your house, you go about so by framing it. Yet the best constructed frames can only stand the test of time by the quality of their construction, and most importantly, being attached to a solid foundation.
Pay great attention to your foundation. It is built of those things God says – and you doing them in thought, word and deed. Those words and your trust in who said them provide you the sure foundation to build upon.
Pup Tents
As I’ve mentioned before, framing your life is a process that involves you. If you want something overnight, you are going to end up with what resembles a pup tent. It will have no foundation of its own, a negligible structure, and walls made of fabric. The first strong burst of weather will do your tent in.
Unfortunately, almost every week I come across people that have been building tents of their lives. When the tent fails, they often blame God, the church, the pastor, or their friends. They’ve never taken the time to think about how they are going about their lives and the impact it can have. To them, life is often lived in the moment, or with a lack of respect for what God has to say about life and how to live it His way. Their approach to life is as if they are going to Home Depot and grabbing things off the shelves, not having a building plan, a list of materials, or the needed tools.
There are also people who have based their theology and perception of God on when things don’t work out, instead of when things do work out. This ends with us living our lives toward God in a way that allows us to manage our disappointments instead of in a way that looks to Him to be strong on our behalf and trusting in Him – even if things don’t work out just as we thought they would.
In my teen years my studies of the bible took me to passages of God doing wonderful things in people’s lives. I found nothing in the Bible that said He had stopped doing those things, or even slowed down. I didn’t find an intermission between the Book of Acts and Jesus’ second coming.
I began to look at God and see Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was still the God of David and Isaiah. I began to see Him as the God of Peter, Paul, and, well…. Me. God was still looking to be God in my life, and it was more than just a bit of salvation fire insurance. He was looking for me to see Him for Who He is – the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
As the years went by, I built a few pup tents in my life, and the storms of life came and tore each of them down. In my case, I wasn’t building them on sand – I just wasn’t being wise enough to build a solid frame structure and attach it to my foundation. I had only been pitching my pup tent on top of that foundation and expecting it to be strong, only to wonder later why it had blown away.
Framing Your Life
That what Christians often do – and I was one of them. Then one day I began to seek God about what I was doing wrong. It was from this time that I learned about the importance of that strong foundation, and then the principle of framing your life – and your world.
Hebrews 11:3
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
The worlds were framed by the word of God.
The word in Hebrews 11:3 that is translated as “framed” carries the meaning of fitting, adjusting, repairing – completing, restoring, and making whole. With this understanding, we can see that the universe and time were fit together and completed by God’s words. Those words He spoke transformed emptiness into a visible, tangible result. We see this in Genesis chapter 1, as the universe we know and the world we live on were created in this manner. God used His words to create something where nothing had been, putting them in order according to His plan.
Framing your world has to do with putting things in place, fit together and whole, according to the plan of God, by the Word of God.
Building a house can be done in the most impressive ways, with the finest quality and little expense spared. As impressive as the house may be, it must have function and purpose for it to be useful and complete.
In the late 1800’s Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun maker William Winchester of the repeating rifle fame, moved to California and purchased a small 8 room cottage in the San Jose area. She soon set about building a large home for her personal residence on the site, spending part of her vast fortune to continue the project. To this end, she eventually employed shifts of carpenters who worked 24 hours a day from 1886 until the time of her death in 1922. During this time, she did not have an architect on staff to lead any of the building projects – choosing instead to oversee the design and building personally.
Over the years she would design an element of the house, have it built, and then have it demolished shortly after its completion – only to have it rebuilt again. She was known to create drawings on napkins or other paper and hand them to her builders to build, even though the elements had no architectural purpose. Doors would open to walls. A staircase ended at the ceiling. Balconies opened to the inside of the house instead of the outside. Some floors had skylights in them. At the house’s largest state, it contained over 160 rooms, 10,000 windows, 2000 doors, and 47 fireplaces.
The Winchester Mansion has been recognized as a building project that was devoid of a building plan. It sprawled with rooms and staircases made of the finest wood, windows and chandeliers made by the Tiffany Company, and Otis elevators. Yet with the best craftsmen and materials, it was a structure that lacked a flow or a purpose. It was built from whim to whim, and today exists only as a novelty and tourist attraction. It’s original purpose as a house and home are no longer its use.
The Winchester Mansion serves as a stark reminder that a purpose and a plan are essential. Room and room of that house was framed by excellent craftsmen, but those frames and rooms didn’t follow a pattern or flow that led to a real purpose. Millions of dollars were spent, and work put into something that never served its true purpose. You wouldn’t want to build a house that way. Neither should you build your life that way.
A builder follows a blueprint, a building plan drawn up by the architect. This building plan will provide the information needed for the builder to follow in order to construct the building to the form and function needed for the purpose of the building. It doesn’t all come together haphazardly. It has an author and a finisher, just as you and I do:
Hebrews 12:1b-2a:
…and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,…
You race, your life, your call – they have an author – the person who drew up your purpose and the plans to allow you to accomplish that purpose. He is also the one who will help you finish that plan and fulfill your purpose. You aren’t left alone to muddle your way through the building process. He is alongside you to help you place each piece of your life in its proper place and secure it.
Jesus is also your finishing carpenter. If you aren’t familiar with that term, a finishing carpenter is responsible for installing all the woodwork in the home, from molding, doors and stairs to mantels, cabinetry, and intricate built-ins. He takes the raw inside of the house and uses his experience and skill to make it functional, appealing, and complete. As you work to frame your life according to the Word of God, Jesus will work In your life to smooth out rough edges, install boundaries where needed, and bring all the elements of who you are together in a way that allows you to be the person you were created to be.
Paul wrote of this in his letter to the church in Philippi, reminding them of the following:
Philippians 1:6
6 I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. (MEV)
Paul was confident that He who began a good work in them – Jesus – would perfect it. The word translated “perfect” carries the meaning of completion, accomplishing, or finishing. That same individual who began working with and in you will stick with the project until He has completed the work. Paul reminded them of this as well:
Philippians 2:12b-13
…Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
God is actively working in us to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. To get us to that place takes work, and He is tirelessly and patiently putting in the hours to improve you and me.
Stability in life comes from a firm foundation and a life built with purpose. The materials of both must be solid, strong, and trustworthy. If you’re looking for stability in your life, you can find what it requires in who God is, and what He has to say. Your life wasn’t meant to be haphazardly thrown together. He created you with a plan in mind, and a destiny to fulfill.
Thanks for listening, and have a great day!
