Is your life founded on the Rock?

Did you also build sandcastles and walls on the beach to try whether you could stop the sea from washing it away? You piled up more and bigger rocks, made a wider wall. Eventually though, the tide coming in was the only real test. The result (inevitable destruction) isn’t the point now – but this: only when the test comes, do you really know if the building will last. Hardship will prove the foundation.

Jesus makes this point in his concluding parable at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:24-27. Two builders, two houses, two different foundations. And two very different outcomes. Until “the rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against” those houses, both looked the same. Only then was the foundation tested, and the house built on sand was destroyed while the house built on rock remained strong.

Jesus said: “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock”. A life of faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ is the solid foundation that won’t be destroyed once the trials of life come. Difficulty in life proves that our Rock (Jesus) is reliable and worth building on, because other houses, built on the sands of earthly pleasures and securities or our own efforts, will be washed away.

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” said Paul (Acts 14:22). So don’t give up when the tide comes in, but trust your Rock. More than that, “consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4).

Klaas-Jan Gunnink