How a Broken Spiritual Foundation Can Make Us Stuck
Have you ever found yourself in a stage where you wanted nothing to do with God? If so, you are in good company. The truth is, a lot of people—even Christians—at some point in life reach a place where they don’t want anything to do with God. The important thing is that we come back to Jesus like the prodigal son.
Now, the big question is: what made us walk away from God in the first place?
Could it be that we didn’t grow up in a Christian home? Did we hear bad things about religion? Were we hurt in church or by someone who claimed to be a Christian? Did we get tired of religion because we were only going through the motions of being a “good Christian,” but we didn’t have a real encounter with Jesus… leading us to give up on God?
Whatever the reason, Jesus wants to renew your mind and give you a fresh new start.
Many times, the reason we might find ourselves stuck in life is because of a broken spiritual foundation. When we live a life separated from God, we are prone to making bad decisions and the consequences of that lifestyle can bring us to a stagnant place in life.
A Broken Spiritual Foundation
I grew up in a conservative Catholic home, and yet I was confused about God and religion.
First of all, I saw myself as a sinner who didn’t have any access to God. I thought of Him as a far and unreachable being who was angry and displeased with me because of my sin. As a matter of fact, I thought that the Lord was so mad at me that He was only looking to punish me.
I also thought that Jesus didn’t hear the prayers of sinners like myself. I had the idea that He only answered the prayers of “extremely religious” individuals. So, in my ignorance, I gave up on praying altogether… I had a broken spiritual foundation.
In my confusion and ignorance, I ended up walking away from God. I wanted nothing to do with a “mean and unreachable” being who only wanted to punish me.
Confused by the Ways of the World
The combination of living a life without God, never reading the Bible, and having a nonexistent prayer life made me a very spiritually disoriented person. Therefore, I was easily persuaded by any wind of doctrine out there in the world.
I started to believe that the Bible wasn’t real and instead followed the deceptive trends of the world. These only led me to make bad decisions that took me further down a path of sin. I was stuck and unhappy.
Then, one day, an opportunity opened up for me to go on a Christian retreat. Without any hesitation, I signed up and went. I knew I needed God for my life to change. It was there that I gave my life to Christ.
After that, I began to attend church every Sunday and read the Bible every night. I was gaining a lot of biblical knowledge, but I still didn’t have a relationship with Jesus. I didn’t have a prayer life…
Years went by before I realized that the most important part of being a follower of Christ is to have a relationship with Jesus.
Jesus, the Chief Cornerstone to Our Spiritual Healing
Without a relationship with Jesus, we still have cracks in our spiritual foundation. We remain broken individuals… filled with hurt, offense, anger, shame, disappointment, and even a wayward theology regarding God. We need spiritual healing and to renew our minds with the Bible. The lack of these in our lives will only contribute to our stagnant state in life.
That’s why many times life feels like an uphill battle. Whenever we set our minds to do something, we end up failing, or we see our plans tumbling down over and over again. We have a hard time achieving things and moving forward in life. This is no coincidence. The Lord is waiting for us to have a relationship with Him. He waits for us to allow Him access into our hearts and minds so He can heal and restore us back to the individuals He created us to be, to fulfill our calling in life.
If we don’t go through the process of healing and renewing our minds, we won’t be able to step into our calling in a manner where we can steward the assignments God has prepared for us in a healthy way. Unhealed hearts can sabotage our future. Therefore, the Lord wants to heal us first; before we start seeing the breakthroughs we are so desperately waiting for in our lives.
The 4 Pillars of a Broken Spiritual Foundation
From my personal journey with the Lord, I could identify four major contributors to a broken spiritual foundation:
Faulty Teaching: We’ve been living in error, believing false teachings and doctrines that are contrary to the truth of the Word of God.
We Don’t Know God Personally: We might have been Christians for many years, going through all the motions of being a “good Christian”—attending church, serving in ministry, and reading the Bible regularly—yet still feel stuck, living life without real meaning or purpose. We need an encounter with Jesus for Him to make us whole and point us in the right direction to fulfill our destiny and calling in life.
We Haven’t Allowed Jesus to Heal Our Hearts: We haven’t given Jesus access to the deepest, darkest corners of our hearts to heal, deliver, and restore our lives from the inside out.
All We Have is Theory: We know the Bible, listen to biblical teachings, and read the Word of God, but we don’t apply it to our day-to-day life. So all we have is theory. The Word of God is not yet fully alive in us.
The common denominator to all four contributors to a broken spiritual foundation is a poor or nonexistent relationship with Jesus.
Rebuilding Our Spiritual Foundation
The good news is that once we start to seek a relationship with Jesus daily that no matter how broken our past or how much we’ve rejected Jesus and the truth. He will order our lives by filling in the cracks of our broken foundation so we can start living in victory. It’s never too late to start afresh.
Here’s how to do it:
1. The first step to come out of that stuck, idle, and purposeless place in life is to give your life to Christ.
2. The second step is to intentionally seek a relationship with Jesus on a daily basis by praying, reading the Bible, and worshiping.
3. The third step is to submit yourself to the sanctification process. This means to intentionally die to the unhealthy desires of the flesh. To accomplish this, we must repent from our sin and turn our lives around to a way of living that pleases God.
Once we give our lives to Christ, we must do steps 2 and 3 consistently for the rest of our lives. Doing so is to live a life on the Rock—which is Jesus—and that is the key to living a life built on a strong spiritual foundation.
A strong spiritual foundation will guarantee we withstand any storm life might throw at us… giving us a life of victory.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
—Matthew 7:24–27
I hope this blessed you today.
Much love,
Jackie