Repairing Your Foundation

I used to rent out a basement apartment from someone, and one morning when I got up I noticed that the floor was all wet. I traced the trail of water back to the wall of the foundation and went up and talked to the landlord about it. I guess their yard had a lot of clay in it so that when it rained, the water could not drain and it just built up against the foundation wall right by where my bedroom was. It only happened when a strong storm came, and with all with the cracks in the wall, the pressure just became too great to hold the water back and the flood came rushing across the carpet. This water could ruin everything that was on the floor, and it could make for a pretty miserable morning when I was trying to get up and get ready to go to work.

The Landlord asked me if I wanted to help fix the problem since it was me that was mostly being affected by it, so I said sure. He gave me some waterproofing paint that was supposed to stop the water from coming in from the inside, but I had to tear a whole wall of paneling off to finally get to the cracks, and what a pain that was. But in high hopes I painted all the cracked areas I saw, and then I closed the wall back up and just prayed. That night it stormed again and the water just came back. Then the Landlord gave me some vulcanized cement to push into the cracks, so this time I was sure it was fixed, but within a few days the rain returned, and so did the flood. I was feeling frustrated at this point. The pressure was just too much and it popped off the patches I had made. I finally gave up and surrendered, and we called in a professional.

The professional said that we had to dig down to the bottom of the foundation of the house and repair the cracks from the outside to fix the leaks. He also said we had to keep the water from building up against the house by setting up an extended drain that would force the water away from the foundation. But, I certainly wasn't going to dig down through 8 feet of clay to try to fix this problem. I had more than done my time. This one professional wanted a lot of money to do it, but we found this other guy from Portugal that would do it for a really good price, and he said he loved to dig. He got my vote. He had the hole dug and the leaks fixed so fast that it was unbelievable, and my carpet never got soaked after that again. I learned after that, to go right to the source of the problem with the right person to fix a serious problem like that again.

So why did I tell you this story, to teach you about basement leaks? Uh, no. You see; your life is like a house that has a foundation that is holding it up. That foundation is made up of all the building blocks and damage that took place during your childhood and adolescence years. So whatever is built on that foundation during your adulthood, rests on all that old damage as well. Many of us have some major cracks in our foundations that allow floods of trouble to come pouring into our lives every time it storms, because the pressure is just too great to hold it back. We have tried to repair these cracks ourselves with different methods, only to find out that the crack is still there when the next storm comes. Many of us get so tired and frustrated that we finally give up and call in a professional to help us, namely Jesus Christ. Then the inner working of God’s Spirit and word can go into their repair mode to start fixing us.

The cracks in your foundation are the things that did or didn't happen with your parents, and others who hurt you or who didn't give you what you rightfully needed while growing up. Believing you are a failure is a crack, believing you are stupid is a crack, believing that you are ugly is a crack, believing that you are evil and unworthful as a human is a huge crack. When trouble or stress comes, the pressure gets to be too much that we try to plug up these cracks with addictions, sensual pleasure, unhealthy habits, mistreating others, or whatever else that we think will fill up that crack inside us. But in the end, we stay unchanged, and finally think "What's the use, I can never change, I might as well just accept the cracks, and try to clean up the flood damage when it comes as best as I can". We just learn to clean up and hide the mess better, and hope that the crack doesn't grow any bigger, but cracks usually multiply and grow bigger in time.

When I was younger, I had a spiritual experience that I will never forget. I have never heard God speak like He did to Moses, but there was one morning while I was in prayer that I heard a voice speak clearly to me, and it said "I need to build a new foundation in you". I thought this was great, but I didn't fully appreciate what it meant. Then came the many painstaking years of God digging down to my foundation and showing me where all the cracks were, and He even told me how they got there. He would have me get into the pit with Him, face and identify the crack (the lie and unhealed damage working in my soul that let evil in), forgive the crack-maker and myself, and then move on to the next crack. This went on for many years until I noticed that the storms could no longer flood my spiritual basement anymore like they used to, because there were little or no cracks left to leak through. But I had to be willing to give up and to allow God to help me "as is" and not try to take control just because I didn’t want to face a particularly painful crack.

I want to encourage you today, that if your life has been like a really leaky basement, and you have been flooded out many times and had everything in your life either damaged or destroyed because of it, that God is with you right now. God wants to repair all the cracks in the foundation of your life that have been hurting you and those around you. He knows you are weary from living with these leaky cracks, and that's why He has allowed you to come to the end of yourself, so that you will finally get the professional help from Him that you need to fix them. He alone knows all the history of your foundation and what it takes to repair all the damage that has been done to you. He is the Master foundation builder so trust Him to help you exactly as you need it.

Also, remember that God wants to bless you and to use you in life, so He needs a stable foundation to build on in you. If you try to build on a damaged foundation, the whole house will eventually fall in. So He has waited to build on you until you are strong enough to withstand the weight because He cares about what happens to you and to those who will live in the house above with you. The higher the building, the deeper the foundation must be, so if God has spent more time on you than some others around you, then just know that He has plans to build very high upon that foundation that He is building in you, and that He can't cut corners. You will be so happy and pleased to see all the work you and He can accomplish together, and God will turn the very cracks that used to plague you, into trophies of His grace and a testimony of what He can do for others.

Some scriptures to help you: