By David ReayMonday 5 Dec 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (NLT)
We may think that as long as we sincerely believe the right things, then we will be able to stand firm in times of trouble. We would be mistaken. According to Jesus, right beliefs are not enough to grant us such security. We need to put those beliefs into practice.
Our firm foundation is not just belief, but behaviour based on that belief. None of us is perfectly obedient. But if our faith is just a matter of words, of correctly thought-out doctrines, it falls short of biblical faith. A faith which does not have practical implications is described elsewhere in the Bible as “dead”. It shows itself to be false.
And here Jesus makes the extra point that such a faith doesn’t do us much good in times of testing. If we are repeatedly overwhelmed by adverse circumstances, we need to look not just at what we believe, but how we are living. A lazy faith does not take Jesus seriously, a lazy faith involves intellectual assent without heart commitment.
Storms will come our way. We can’t avoid them, but we can make sure we are well equipped to withstand them. That involves Bible knowledge and well held beliefs. But it also involves a Spirit aided determination to put the beliefs into action. That alone constitutes true faith, which in turn alone gives us our firm foundations.
Blessings
David