Luke 6:47 – 49 (NASB)
Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:
he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.
Most of us are familiar with this parable and most of us would like to say we are like the man who built a foundation on the rock. We honor God and believe his words. We don’t tend to look at our life in terms of the second man. However, let me ask you something, did the second man believe the word? It says that this man heard the word. The Greek word used here implies not just the hearing of the word of God, but the understanding of it as well. It is the same word used of the first man. What is the difference? It is the doing, the acting on the word of God. It is not just going to church. It is not just reading the word of God every day; it is the continual application of the God’s word in your life each moment of every day. I don’t mean by this that you follow the letter of the law. The Scribes and Pharisees followed the letter of the law. But they did not understand the heart of the law. Look at Matthew 23:23.
Matthew 23:23 (NASB)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
If we are going to be like the man who built a foundation that stood against the storms we must remember justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Doing the Word of God is not just rules and regulations, but the understanding and application of God’s Justice, which is not in judging others, but in receiving the forgiveness of God through the remission of sin through Jesus Christ. We must understand and apply God’s mercy, not just in what He has done for us, but keeping in mind that what He has done for us, He has done and will do for others and there is not a single one of us that doesn’t require the mercy of God. There is no “Even at my worst I would have never done that.” There is only “Come, God forgives you in Christ and so do I.” We must at all times be faithful to God. Trusting Him in all that we do, say, think. Faithfulness is a simple trust that God will do what He says he will do, and even if we make a mistake He will forgive us when we come to him. Like a small child learning to walk, we are faithful even when we fall as long as we get back up and continue to walk.
This then is the foundation we must build in our lives; a trust in God’s judgment, His mercy, and His faithfulness and by application our faithfulness to him in our life. God is here for you and He loves you. He knows that it is possible for you to live a life built on a foundation of understanding and action of His words that will prevail against the storms of the life and the world.
Keith Carter Ministries 