I often wonder why it is so incredibly easy for us to find ourselves building our houses in the sand. We busily go about our lives in search for fulfillment with a longing that we too often don't take the time to understand. It is a longing for something deeper, something more intimate, and something more intense. And, for whatever reason, we find ourselves building our emotions, our dreams, and our entire lives on a foundation that is less than worthy of Jesus Christ, the Solid Rock. So when the wind rises and the rain comes, the foundation gives way, and we arrive at a place of brokenness; absorbed by the world that we have so willingly embraced as a home.

I imagine, at some point, we've all found ourselves in that place ... picking up the broken pieces of a life that we've built on the sand. Maybe you're there right now. Left to our own devices, we could never find a foundation strong enough to support the weight of the lives that we lead. Jesus, however, offers hope. He is the Solid Rock, our Support, our Foundation. But how do you begin to build your life on the Solid Rock when all you've ever known is the sand? Jesus says, "Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock" (Matt. 7:24). It is a process that requires effort on our part.

Let’s look at what is required of us according to this passage. The first principle that this passage offers is that we must listen to the teaching of Jesus. How could we even begin to build on a foundation that we know nothing about? Is it even possible to really know the person of Jesus or to understand his teachings apart from the study of the Word? It is through Scripture that God has chosen to reveal himself, and in Scripture we find everything pertaining to life and godliness. Secondly, this passage says that we must have obedience. So we are not only called to listen to the teachings of Jesus (the easy part is listening), we are also to obey His teachings.

Check out the rest of the passage: "Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse, because it was built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and the floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall like a mighty crash" (Matt. 7:25-27).

I don't know where you're placing your hope or on what foundation you're building, but I know that Jesus offers a foundation stronger than any other.

On Christ the Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

When darkness veils His lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He, then, is all my hope and stay

When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in His righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne