10According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.What foundation are you building upon? God is clear that the only acceptable foundation for life is life in Jesus. As Paul said in I Corinthians 3, "Let each one take care how he builds upon it.". Has God started something in your life that was so full of His grace and power that you were firmly convicted that He would see it through till the end?
Beware of building on the foundation God laid with materials He has not ordered you to use. So often, we try to quickly build on the foundation of God using material that will only cause it to collapse once the trials and storms of life come. Sometimes, as the passage in I Corinthians suggests, our building is tested by God, and if we have hastily built upon God's foundation with selfish intent, impatience, or rebellion, God will lovingly correct us. He is active in destroying our building materials, but God is always seeking to replace them with His own materials of grace, love, and self-control. God wants us to succeed, however we usually define success on our terms instead of God's.
This sets us up for the inevitable and painful tearing down of our works, and a rebuilding according to the "master builder's" blueprint. The tearing down of our works is humbling, painful, and embarrassing, however when the Lord builds the house, as the Psalmist said, those who live in it can exist in full assurance that they are in the hand of the Lord.
