Jentezen Franklin Daily Devotional (April 9, 2025) Built To Last.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” Matthew 7:24
Foundation and structure are necessary in all areas of life including the human body. If you remove the skeletal structure, everything else will collapse. In the same way, you cannot allow the culture of this world to remove God’s structure for the family. God designed a man to be married to a woman as evidenced in Genesis when He created Eve from the rib of Adam to make a “helper suitable” for him. God also established the Ten Commandments to keep order and peace among men and to keep you on the right path.
The generations before us put a man on the moon. This generation is putting men in women’s bathrooms. This world will tell you that it’s okay to live with your boyfriend before marriage and that it’s okay to ask your children what gender they want to be. Today’s culture wants to compromise God’s boundaries but we must stand firm on what we know is right.
Samson made a Nazarite vow that he would not drink wine, touch dead things, or cut his hair. It was a vow of consecration to show God that he was set apart for God’s use. But then, the next thing you know, he is drinking a little wine, eating honey out of a dead animal carcass, and sleeping with his girlfriend Delilah. All these compromises eventually led to a great fall. He messed with God’s structure so much that the spirit and his strength had left him.
Like Samson, once you start altering the structure of your relationships and convictions, you won’t know when your power has left you. As you compromise here and there you won’t realize how weak you’ve become. Filthy music and pornography may seem like small things but they will eventually affect the structure of who you are. Hanging out with the wrong friends can also make you lower your values until eventually you aren’t the person you used to be.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When you make up your mind that you are not going to conform to the world’s patterns, you will have a relationship with God that is built to last.
