A House on a Rock

Hello again and welcome. Our Daily Bread would like to encourage you today with a reading titled A House on a Rock was written by Wynn Collier. As many as 34,000 homes in one U.S. state are at risk of collapsing due to faulty foundations. Without realizing it, a concrete company pulled stone from a quarry laced with a mineral that, over time, causes concrete to crack and disintegrate.

The foundations of nearly 600 homes have already crumbled and that number will likely skyrocket over time. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus used the image of building a home atop a faulty foundation to explain the far riskier danger of building our lives on unsteady ground. He explained how some of us construct our life on sturdy rock, ensuring that we hold solid when we face fear storms.

Others of us, however, erect our lives on sand and, when the tempest rage, our lives tumble with a great crash. The one distinction between building on an unshakable foundation and a crumbling one is whether or not we put Christ's words into practice. The question isn't whether or not we hear his words, but whether we practice them as he enables us.

There's much wisdom offered to us in this world, plus lots of advice and help, and much of it is good and beneficial. If we base our life on any foundation other than humble obedience to God's truth, however, we invite trouble. In his strength, doing what God says is the only way to have a house, a life built on rock.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 through 29. 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. The 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. But 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.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. Now let's pray. Dear Lord, may we not follow the ways of the culture and get sucked in by the popularity of following after the world's value system, but may we avoid the great temptation to build our lives on our own foundations rather than on the solid rock of Christ. And we pray that you would help us to continually build on the foundation you laid in our lives so that others may see you living in us. And we thank you, Lord, for your grace and mercy to do so. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.