Re:Verse passage – Matthew 7:24-29 (day four)
Jesus ends this sermon with a metaphor that delivers a word of warning. He says that the teaching he gave us should become the new foundation for our lives, just like the foundation on which an entire home is built. Too often, we want to take Jesus’ words and graft them into our already-constructed worldview. We find ways to fit them into our life like filling in cracks in the walls, or building an addition on our house. We try to fit Jesus into what we’ve already built.
But Jesus does not mince words. Any other foundation for life will wash away as soon as a storm comes. If we encounter Jesus’ words and realize that we have built a house for ourselves on the sand, then we don’t just add another room founded on the gospel, we have to tear the whole house down and start anew, building on the firm foundation of truth.
This takes a great amount of faith and patience. Demolishing what we have built on the shaky foundation, on the ways of the world, is challenging, even heartbreaking. But it’s in our newly built home that we’ll find an appreciation for the storms – they remind us what a firm foundation we have in Christ.
“Demolishing what we have built on the shaky foundation, on the ways of the world, is challenging, even heartbreaking.” So profound, Megan! This realization should make all of us who accepted Christ as children very grateful; we had Him as our architect almost from the beginning. How much harder to have to tear away all the “sweetest frames” in order to build life on the Solid Rock!