Friday, July 20, 2012

Upon The Rock

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:26-27 (NKJV)

I remember, as a child, building sand castles down at the beach. It was pretty cool to build them up, and sometimes a lot of work would be put into these makeshift works of art. But I also remember it didn’t take long for them to be torn down by the waves. Which is exactly what happened each time as the tide came in and the waves swept over them. In an instant, all the work and effort was taken down, and reduced to a foundation of shifting sand.

We can take this illustration and graft it to our lives as well, because we build our lives upon a foundation—the type of foundation it’s built upon ultimately will determine whether we will stand during the storms of life, and the waves of tribulation.

Q: What type of foundation should we be building our lives upon?

There are the two types of foundations we can choose from;

1. A Temporary Foundation: based on the things of the world, so they are like the shifting sand at the beach.

2. An “Eternal” Foundation: based on God, and His Word, like the solid Rock of Jesus Christ. Jesus told us we should be building them upon the “Rock.”

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25 (NKJV)

Most people don’t pay too much attention to the foundations of the buildings they pass along the street, but if the foundation wasn’t a good one then it will be exposed once the shaking has stopped, or the storm has cleared.

The same is true of us as men and women. When we build the foundation of our lives out of the temporal things of this world—things such as wealth, jobs, homes, cars, our physical bodies, or anything else that is of this world—we are heading for disaster. It will only be a matter of time until the storms of life hit us and wipe out everything built upon this unstable foundation, including the faith we put into these temporal physical things.

But when we put our faith into Christ, and we build our life upon Him and upon His Word, then what we do will be for eternal glory. We will have a peace knowing we are firmly grounded and are able to withstand any storm He allows to come our way. We need to understand the storms are coming. Jesus didn’t say, “If the rains come down.” He said, “And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house.” So we need to be prepared, and we need to be firmly grounded—not fearing.

I want to encourage you to meditate upon these things today. Let’s not be like the sand castles on the beach. Let’s place our faith into the footings of Jesus Christ. He is our Rock! He is our salvation! Let’s choose to build upon Him…

STUDY QUESTION: According to Matthew 7:24-25 what did Jesus say about the two types of foundations that we build our lives upon?

PERSONAL INVENTORY: Are you building your life upon the Rock of Jesus?

APPLICATION: Let’s choose to build our lives upon the Rock of Jesus Christ and no other foundation.

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