Note from Team LO: We are so excited to have one of our LO sister ambassadors on the blog today, Madison Hogue! Today she’s sharing about this month’s theme on the LO sister app, “rebuild.” If you’re searching for godly community and daily encouragement, LO sister is the place for you. Now, enjoy Madison’s blog. We hope you are just as blessed by her words as we were!

Sin is inevitable. The brokenness that results from sin is inevitable. Looking back, or for some even in the present – we’ve felt a shattered spirit through various trials and struggles. Brokenness from sin has made its debut more times than necessary in all of our lives, no matter the extent. The feeling of having our life collapsed is unfortunately inevitable, when we live our lives driven by the ways of our human desires.

We feel the comparison, we feel the temptation, the bitterness, we feel the pressure to perform or look a certain way, you name it; we’ve faced our struggles no matter the degree. I’m here to remind you of something that must be held tightly from today, to tomorrow, to the rest of your life: the brokenness that ties in with sin can either cause you to keep sinking deeper into it, or God can use that very sin to rebuild your life on a stronger, more durable foundation. My prayer for you is that you believe He wants the second option for you and that you will fully trust in Him to take hold of your heart so He can begin piecing it back together, to live out your God given purpose. He calls us to build a foundation on His sturdy rock, not the world’s quicksand.

Jesus so evidently speaks this to us in Matthew 7:24-27 by saying, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”

Man. Jesus is saying to us that if we try to build our lives upon the world’s standard, oftentimes the ‘easier’ standard, we will collapse. I’ve built my foundation onto sand more times than I’m proud to admit. The outcome was always the same though, I fell. I sunk. I was defeated. I was never fully satisfied. But the good news is that if we build our life upon His foundation, His bedrock, we truly begin living a fruitful life.

The first step is so important to allow Him to perform His work: surrendering.

Surrender the very thing that’s causing you to sink. The cost of surrendering in order to rebuild means that our flesh must die; we must be willing to let go of our old to walk into the new. This is sometimes easier said than done, but thankfully we have a God who calls us worthy and beloved and is constantly at work within us, ready to walk the path together into freedom. No, walking alongside Him will not always come easy and this doesn’t mean that all of your battles will suddenly disappear, but I can assure you on this: Walking with Him means that we won’t have to face them alone. God doesn’t make us storm-free people. He transforms us into storm-proof people built firmly on the foundation that is in Christ. He’s stretching His arms out ready for us to come home.

Surrendering feels out of our comfort zone, most times it means releasing from something we might have rooted our identity in + relied on rather than turning to God. That’s the beauty of giving it to Him though, to make that leap of faith into who He’s calling you to be. This verse below helped me in an unsteady walk of life I was living to finally grasp the whole idea of what it means to let go.

“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.” Mark 8:35 

During a time in my life, I was walking in a trap of comparison, which spiraled into a whole journey of forgetting where my worth was found. Body image was creeping at it’s all time high, and it was the enemy’s plot to distract me away from my redeemer. I was walking in brokenness, emerging into a false identity that was being rooted in the world. I sunk in the sand. I’m sharing this because it was a time in my life that led to complete brokenness, which resulted in me sinking so deep, having to come face to face to the wake up call of Whose I truly am, which then led to surrender. I laid my heart at the throne of God for Him to take and make new. I rested in the truth He was the only one that could save me. I had to give up my life in order to actually live it. For Him to save it. You see, hanging onto that thing we think our identity is found only leads to a sinking foundation, if it’s not drawing you closer to Christ. Giving up the thing that’s weighing you down leads to life. A life lived in full. I can attest to this.

He can take what’s shattered, messy and what we feel like is too big of a wound to restore and completely redirect our steps to rebuild the very foundation we thought was destroyed for good. He can rebuild the relationship between you and Him that was once ripped apart by sin, then replant and revive our heart, so that our foundation can be built on sturdy bedrock. Stronger and mended back together because we’re walking with Him. That’s the life I want for you, friend. That’s the life our God wants for us. It’s you and Him on this foundation walking together, so I’ll leave you with this. What broken piece in your heart is causing your foundation to sink that you need to let go of to begin a durable life built on His sturdy foundation? I promise you the surrender is worth it. You do not have to keep sinking, friend.

Madison currently lives in Arkansas where she spends her time painting, playing ukulele, loving on her crazy fun family and walking her trusty golden retriever, Beau. (Even though he mostly walks her.)

Follow Madison on Instagram @madisonjhogue 

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