Ever gotten off to the wrong start with a project and had to start all over again?
A few years ago, one of my neighbors decided to erect a sizable building in his backyard. With excitement and anticipation, he drew up the plans, obtained the necessary permits and within days, the foundation was laid. Before I knew it, the walls were going up. But the next thing I knew…those same walls came tumbling down.
According to my neighbor, there was a problem with the foundation–it wasn’t level. Though costly and time consuming to repair, he knew, if left unaddressed, his entire building would have been skewed and it would have never been able to stand.
Did you know that during His epic Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught along the very same lines? He said:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash (Matt. 7:24-27).”
The similarities between these two builders are quite obvious. Both hear. Both build and both get hit by storms. Ye, unlike the first, rather than honoring and obeying the word, the latter did his own thing, and consequently, he and his entire household suffered loss.
White it might be human nature to make choices appear difficult, here, Jesus reminds us of one straightforward approach that we can apply to it all. Regardless of the issues we face in life–what to buy…who to marry…what career path to pursue, etc–when we begin with God’s word, we can have confidence in knowing that our decisions will stand firm and our outcomes will always end up right.
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