What are you building on?

 What Are You Building On?

 

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.

MATTHEW 7.24-27

Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. . . . But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

JAMES 1.22, 25

 

Do you know the song “The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock”? It says that when the rains came down and the floods came up, the house on the rock stood firm, while the house on the sand went splat.

So what was the difference between the wise person and the foolish person? When we read the parable Jesus told, we see that they had many things in common. Both of them heard God’s Word. In modern terms, it is as if they both attended church and sat through the sermon Sunday after Sunday. And both of them experienced the storm. They each faced trouble and difficulty. But the story tells us that the wise person’s house did not collapse, while the foolish person’s house fell with a mighty crash.

What does it mean to build your house on solid rock versus unstable sand? The difference is in the way you respond when you hear God’s Word. One Bible version says that the wise person not only hears God’s words but also “puts them into practice” (Mt 7:24, NIV). The foolish person heard God’s Word but ignored it. It is as if this person thought being in church was good enough. Wise people let God’s Word change and shape them, strengthen and prepare them for when the storms of life come.