Read Luke 6:46-49.

The imagery used throughout this devotional is that of being built into a spiritual lighthouse with the purpose of letting the Light of Life – Jesus in us – shine in and through us. In considering a lighthouse, the very real temptation is to get straight on with the construction of the building. But in order to go higher we must first go lower…

A lighthouse has to be built on solid rock. Speaking spiritually, this bedrock is our covenant relationship with God.

For those who built the first lighthouses around our coasts, sometimes it literally took three or four years of battling against the continual power and fierceness of stormy seas and ferocious winds before bedrock foundations were sufficiently strong and stable enough for upward building to begin. Once these foundations were in place, building the tower was the easy part; this would often be completed in one short building season.

...we also need to learn how to dig down deep into our relationship with God in order to endure through the storms that hit us.

The temptation for us all is to want to press on with the building. Nobody really likes the hard work of digging foundations; but just as the lighthouse pioneers had to persist and endure through the storms they faced, we also need to learn how to dig down deep into our relationship with God in order to endure through the storms that hit us.

It does not matter if we are rich or poor, black or white, Jew or Gentile – the ups and downs of life’s storms happen to us all. Some are the kind we can pray into and know we have received the breakthrough for, because the storm disappears. But the truth is that many of us live with storms that just do not go away.

How we react, cope with and face these storms boils down to the type of spiritual foundations we have in place. We need to have proved His constant love and faithfulness through our personal storms now, so that when bigger storms hit, we should be able not only to stand strong ourselves, but also reach out, offering the gospel of true hope to others.

Not one of us can say with any certainty that we will stand under such immense testing; we hope that we will, but we may not. Faced with the seriousness of this, we must be willing to take whatever steps we can to mature in the things of God now, whilst we can. Theory, theology and head knowledge are all well and good, but we need more than this.

A day is coming when ... we will need to truly KNOW HIM and have proved Him faithful through our experience of Him at work in our everyday lives.

A day is coming when it will no longer be sufficient just to say or sing the right things or raise our hands at the right moment; we will need to truly KNOW HIM and have proved Him faithful through our experience of Him at work in our everyday lives.

I thought I had a pretty solid relationship with God until I received the diagnosis that I had a serious incurable auto-immune disease that could, in time, affect and kill-off the ability of my blood vessels, muscles, and internal organs to function normally. To say I was stunned is an understatement. But I was glad to receive an explanation for the symptoms that had been developing in my body over the previous four years.

Despite my efforts to stand strong in the Lord, my mind began to be bombarded with all sorts of fearful, negative and harmful thoughts. As I gave into these, there was an increase in the manifestation of the different symptoms. Months went by when I struggled to get through the day because I felt so ill. I knew I was not right.

I also knew that if I continued getting worse, then I did not stand even half a chance of fulfilling all I believe God has planned for me to do in the season of the greater storm up ahead. So, I went to my Father God and told Him all of this…

So, I went to my Father God and told Him all of this…

Additional reading: 1 Corinthians 2:13; Psalm 127:1.

Prayer Time:

• What does the bare rock signify in terms of your relationship with God?
• Is it possible to lay down such an inward foundation in Jesus that it remains secure and firm through the severest of testing storm? How can you begin to dig-down deeper?
• What is the Lord teaching you about Himself?
• What is He showing you about yourself?

Talk to Him about these things.

Other reflections in this series can be accessed here.