Last Saturday, Lycia shared a message on building our house on solid rock. The question she opened with was, 'what do we build our lives upon?'
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 -7), Jesus gives us insight into the way of life we are called to. In his teaching, he calls us to be humble, to love our enemies, to not be anxious, to not judge others, and to live before our Father who is in secret. Jesus concluded his powerful teaching by telling His listeners that only those who do the will of the Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.
It reminded me that we can be believers and claim to know God, do signs and wonders in His name and yet still not do his will. It is scary to think about this verse - the words of Jesus force us to check ourselves when we claim our intimacy with God. Even if we are doing things in His name, our fruitfulness is not a measure of the depth of our relationship with Him.
In her message, Lycia focused on the parable of the two men who built their houses in Matthew 7:24-27. The house built upon a rock weathered the storm and the one built upon sand collapsed during the storm. It is quite obvious that we need a proper foundation. Jesus’s teaching is not concerned with a physical building; He is telling us that our lives need to be built on a firm foundation.
Everyone builds their life on something. Our foundation is that thing that makes us feel secure and significant: it could be our job, achievements, family, relationships, approval of others, beauty, money and more. But all these are temporal and if they fail, we will be like a house built on on shifting sand, which will crumble.
The only firm foundation of our life is JESUS CHRIST, our ROCK. Anything that we build our lives upon, apart from the unwavering love of God, is shifting sand.
So what does it mean to build our life on the rock?
We have to dig and drill down deep (Luke 6:48) and lay strong layers so that the foundation won’t move and withstand the circumstances that we face. It is hard work and we can't take any shortcuts. We lay our foundation by spending time with God in the secret place, listening to Him and doing what He says. On Tuesday, during the Love Letters session, we also discussed how we can hear from God. Indeed, one of the most important things is to find a 'secret place' - a place we go to to spend time with our Father who is unseen.
We also have to live a life of obedience, ensuring that our thoughts and actions are aligned to His word.
Indeed, true happiness and fulfilment come from being centered on God. We are reminded of what Bill Johnson calls the four cornerstones of thought: 1) God is good; 2) Nothing is impossible; 3) Jesus’s blood paid for everything and 4) everyone is significant. These cornerstones of thought should form the foundation of our thought life and should be the lens through which we view everything.
Lord, thank You for Your word, which is our firm foundation. May the Holy Spirit help us to spring clean and overhaul the foundations that we have built on shifting sand. Help us to build our foundation on Jesus Christ – Our Rock who is stable, secure and safe. Amen!
Signing off,
Jacob's Well
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