It's All About Trust

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The 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. 26But 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. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27

Oooh. I never, ever looked at this verse this way before. This is one of those verses that I started learning in a young Sunday School class. It was frequently used as an example of doing what is right and listening to instruction. But read these verse again. Do you notice anything? The wise man built his house on the rock. The foolish man built his house on the sand. But they both went through a horrible storm. They both had to experience the hard times.

Being a Christian doesn't give us a free pass out of trouble. We still get to experience the ups and downs of life, the good times and the bad times. The difference we have a God to put our faith and our trust in. We trust that He will help us to get through the difficult times, and we listen to what he has to say to us. When he tells us to build our house on the rock, we listen, so that we can weather the storm to come. And when we get through that storm, usually we are far wiser than before we began, and we can share what we know with others who have yet to experience their own storms. We also come through with a greater sense of the God who is with us. Times of trouble tend to bring us closer to God, which is a great encouragement to think on when we're going through those rough times.

I just pray that that we can remain mindful of the rough times that we've weathered. If we forget them completely, we're liable to repeat bad judgement. And God doesn't want to see us repeatedly build our house on the sand. He wants to see us learn from our mistakes, and the next time, build that house on the rock.