This study comes from one of my favorite scriptures, and that is Helaman 5:12,
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
This scripture really answers how we make it through this life. This life is anything but easy. However when we build upon the rock of our redeemer, the devil will have no power over us. None. Zero. How promising is that? Will we feel the affects of him? Yes. But will he have power over us? Absolutely not. After we're asked to build upon the rock of the redeemer it tells us more in depth how to build upon the rock, and that is to make the Savior our foundation.
Every building has a foundation and the whole building depends on that foundation. In the video above, if you watch closely, right before it falls there are small explosions towards the bottom of the building. To take down the building they had to place dynamite on specific parts of the foundation so when they blow it up the whole building, no matter how tall or strong, will fall. Satan has had a lot of practice on finding where he can place dynamite to bring us down. No matter how how strong we are he can take us down, however now is where the previous scripture comes in. Satan will not be able to place the dynamite if we build our foundation on Christ.
"Therefore, fear not, little aflock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are bbuilt upon my rock, they cannot prevail." -Doctrine and Covenants 6:34
Basing our lives on Christ and basing our lives on his example and teachings ensure that our foundation is secure. Along with feeling the security we also can feel of the joy that comes through following Christ.
"And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are aangry because of bthe truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the crock dreceiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall." -2 Nephi 28:28
If you really have built upon rock you will feel gladness! Joy! Happiness! and what if we aren't built upon the rock? We will tremble lest we shall fall. We will be scared because we know that without that sure foundation Satan has already planted those explosives and are waiting to detonate them one by one. Satan never detonates them all at once, rather one here and one there, so discreet that unless we are paying attention to building our foundation we wont even know until we fall, and as quoted throughout the scriptures, great will be the fall.
What happens after we have secured our foundation? Build upon it! As obvious as the answer is a lot of times people don't take the initiative to build upon their foundation. Compare it to building a building, would you stop after you build the foundation? No! So why do we? We tend to only read the scriptures or pray when we are going through trials. In the Book of Mormon we read of Captain Moroni preparing for war in time of peace:
"And behold, the city had been rebuilt, and Moroni had stationed an army by the borders of the city, and they had acast up dirt round about to shield them from the arrows and the bstones of the Lamanites; for behold, they fought with stones and with arrows." Alma 49:2
The enemy isn't attacking, it's peaceful, so why would Moroni be thinking how to secure the land?
"Now at this time the chief acaptains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security." -Alma 49:5
How did their enemies react? They were astonished exceedingly! We need to take this story to heart and build up our lives and our selves right now in moments of peace. Then, when Satan will come he'll look at the preparations and be "astonished exceedingly." Don't stop building yourselves up! Towards the end of Alma we read of the wars among civilizations. Without fail, the civilization that is righteous always won. Along with that, without fail, that civilization always turned wicked and that is because they became prideful. As we build up our fortifications we need to always remember that it is through Jesus Christ that we become the best we can become. It has nothing to do with our own power. Be Humble! and then Stay Humble!
This is a picture taken from above Chicago. In the upper right corner of the photo is full of sky scrapers. Now, with no previous knowledge of Chicago, could you tell me which building is the tallest one? Which building took the most materials to build? No! They all appear the same. You only see the tops of the roof and nothing beyond that. As we build our lives upon a sure foundation we need to appear as these buildings. We shouldn't be flaunting our preparations, our glass siding, or tinted windows for everybody to see. This is where humility comes in again, and that is realizing that your preparations are between you and God. Not something to show off. Be humble and stay humble.
Our purpose on this life is to prepare to return to live with God. We are asked to prepare for the final days to build up our building/life so we can be worthy in the last days.
"And said to the amountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:" -Rev 6:16
If you do not prepare correctly with a secure foundation you will use the rocks/mountains/buildings to hide yourself from God and Jesus Christ. As we prepare correctly this is what is promised:
"And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith—I am aMessiah, the bKing of Zion, the cRock of Heaven, which is broad as deternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and eclimbeth up by me shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with fsongs of everlasting gjoy." -Moses 7:53
Our buildings will allow us to climb up with Christ on the Rock of Heaven. Let us prepare so in the last days we may all "come forth with songs of everlasting joy."
