Daily Devotional

Three years after establishing our lives in Reedley, we bought our second home. It was new. In fact, it was not even built yet when we made the decision. So we were able to work with the builder and choose what we wanted.

The way things were often built then (1976) the home came with no prepared yard, mostly just dirt, not even a fence! We had a front sidewalk and a driveway. Also a small 3’x3’ pad at the door to the garage from the back, and a pad twice that size at the sliding glass door along the same wall. There was nothing else! So all that was my job to make happen, but it was also my delight! One of those jobs that Lynn and I designed in was a back patio, covered. It was to be fairly big, about 12’x24’.

While we were free to build whatever we wanted, we did have a given starting place. The house was in a form of an “L,” with the inside corner of that “L” in the back. Therefore, that was the predetermined staring point. And with that, the two edges of the patio had to run parallel to the house. It was a great experience. It took time. And it was my first ever cement work!

Coming to the end of December often leads to thoughts about the new year ahead. God has established life like that, so it is natural to do so. Many think of making changes, even resolutions. There can be a kind of unbridled excitement about all that could be in the year ahead! But the truth usually plays out in a less encouraging way. According to one survey, the average New Year’s resolution lasts only 3.74 months! Sorry to disappoint you!

Still, dreaming and having some vision of what could be is a good thing. Needed even, if changes are to be made. But to make sure the first step is right, there is only one place to begin. Just like my patio, there was only one starting place for us. That was the inside corner “L” of the existing house.

It is the same in the Christian life. That inside corner of the “L” in the kingdom is a called a cornerstone. It was expressed by the prophet Isaiah as follows.

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.
I will make justice the measuring line
And righteousness the level.”
Isaiah 28:16-17a, NASB

So I urge you to go back to the beginning this January. That costly cornerstone of the foundation we now know to be Jesus. He is the only foundation to be laid (1 Corinthians 3:11). The stone must be rightly placed in our hearts. Then every other building line is to be laid out off that stone. It is tested. It is costly. It is firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed, will not build unstable, useless and destructive things.

So first go back to Jesus, and faith in Him. Take a look at how the lines of your life are running. Do they fit along the sides of that stone? Left, right, up and down? For the Christian that means prayer. It means faith. It means God’s word. It means connecting with the Holy Spirit who is in you.

But truly, in those straight lines off that exclusive stone, all things are possible. Building free-form in the world limits us to the world. In faith, on the other hand, all things are possible, even beyond the confines of earth. Things like moving mountains and throwing mulberry trees into the sea with a word. Nothing will be impossible to you, in Him!

May you have a great new year! It can be for any believer the best year ever, no matter what! For in faith in Christ there are no limits, only those which are directed by Him.
I wonder what He wants to do in and through you this year? Through me? Through all of us? I am excited to see!

Read: Isaiah 28:14-22, I Corinthians 3:1-10, Romans 9:30-33

Sing: How Firm a Foundation, Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, Traditional American Melody
 

Read: 2 Samuel 5:17–25, Joshua 5:13–15
Sing: I Must Tell Jesus, Elisha A. Hoffman

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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