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Matthew 7:24 NLT
‘Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.’
The image of building a house on rock is both simple to imagine and easy to appreciate. Perhaps the ease of access we enjoy in this metaphor means that we may not pause long enough to respond to Jesus’ words.
In essence, I grasped this parable the very first time I heard it as a new Christian. I believed in myself and my good intentions and so assumed I could only build upon solid rock. I was blessed, my ministry in demand and appreciated, happily married and making my way through life with a regular charismatic hand-wave to God. Imagine my shock when I discovered my home was, in fact, collapsing. What I took to be rock was no more than sediment that might constitute rock in time, but I’d moved too soon.
As we first faced childlessness, not an illness yet so much more than a disappointment, the first cracks appeared. Then with the diagnosis of MS, we quickly suffered catastrophic subsidence. This house was unfit to live in and was headed for collapse. How was it I could have happily lived in a home for many years before I recognised it wasn’t fit for purpose?
I thought I’d listened to God and sincerely attempted to live God’s way. However, reflection revealed that I’d cherry-picked. I’d taken those words of God that easily fitted around my life preferences and turned a deaf ear to the more challenging statements. I wanted healing, I wanted comfort, I wanted reassurance and security – then I paused and reluctantly agreed to enquire after what God wanted!
God wanted my life. God wanted to reveal his grace through me however he chose. God wanted to determine my course through life ahead of my own preferences. I was threatened by his direct clarification, intimidated at the prospect of the surrender of control God requested, and incapable of finding the level of faith required to trust all of my present and my future into his hands alone. So began a house-search like no other.
QUESTION: Have you checked the foundations of your house (life) recently?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you are the only sure foundation. May my life be built on you.
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