New Year: Firm Foundation
As we start a new year a lot of people are going to make resolutions and goals. Honestly, a week into the new year, a lot of those resolutions and goals are probably already broken, but regardless, this is the time when people take a look at their lives and make decisions about the types of things they want to change or remove or improve on. While there’s not really anything special about the start of a new year, we still take this time to examine ourselves, and even if we don’t “officially” make any New Year’s Resolutions we still probably all can identify things in ourselves that we like and want to fortify and make stronger, things that we want/need to improve on, and things that we want to change or just get rid of entirely. These may be skill sets, or attitudes, or habits, or mindsets, or relationships, or activities, etc…
So, how about you, what do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to get rid of? What do you want to add? What do you want to change? Do you have health related goals, education related goals, sports related goals, family or friend related goals, God related goals? Take a minute to think about this, and take note of everything that comes to your mind, regardless of how huge or small it may seem.
Goals are important. A lot of people tend to discount them, especially when they are positioned as New Year’s Resolutions, because, frankly, most people aren’t very serious about keeping them or pursuing them, so they become just a thing that we do without any real intention of following through or making any change. However, goals are still wildly important. You need to have something that you are moving toward in life, something that you are pursuing, otherwise you will, almost inevitably, just stay stagnant in life, never doing what God has intended for you.
Here’s the thing though, when we set goals, when we make plans, we need to make sure that those goals and plans are firmly rooted and set on something secure, otherwise, they will be easily knocked down, discarded and destroyed.
Matthew 7:24-27 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
We see here Jesus giving an example of two houses. It looks like both are identical, or at least we are going to assume so. There’s nothing to indicate otherwise. So, we have two houses, both built with the same material, to the same specs. Both go through storms: rain, floods, wind. The only difference in these two houses is the foundation that they are built on. One is built on rock and the other on sand, and what we see is that the difference in the foundation is incredibly important. The difference in foundation results in one of the houses standing and weathering the storms that come against it and the other collapsing in fantastic fashion.
Obviously, Jesus is not literally talking about houses here, but rather, He is challenging us to look at what we have as a foundation for our lives and how that can change the trajectory of our lives. Just like both houses go through storms, each and every one of us has gone/is going/will go through storms in our lives. These storms may come in the form of the death of a loved one, a friend or family member. They may be in the loss of a relationship, not through death, but through abandonment, betrayal, or just growing apart, divorce, etc.... We may face storms of struggles in school or sports or your job or whatever hobby you have. You may face storms of self-identity, self image or bullying. You may face storms in your family with your siblings or your parents or your children. You may face financial storms. You may face health storms, sickness or injury. You may face mental health storms: depression, anxiety, apathy, suicidal thoughts. You may face spiritual storms, doubt, fear, etc…
So, again, I want you to take a moment to think about some of the storms that you are currently experiencing.
No one is immune from storms. They are going to come to everyone. What these verses in Matthew are asking us to consider, however, is what happens when those storms hit. When you come up against something that is hard and overwhelming and works against you and against the goals that you are pursuing, do you crumble, or do you stand? When we build our lives and set our goals on “sand” on something that is insecure and shifting and uncertain, we can’t hope to be able to stand in the storms, we are going to fall. Those hardships in life will derail our hopes and dreams and pursuits and we will find ourselves constantly trying to rebuild, constantly trying to come up with some workaround to compensate for the sand that our lives are built on. However, if we have a firm foundation, a foundation of rock, something secure and solid and immovable, while the storms may beat and batter, while our lives and goals may be damaged for awhile or need some shoring up, they won’t fall. We won’t fall. We will be able to stand and move forward and grow and be a place of refuge and comfort and security.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” This firm foundation is found in Jesus, in His words and teachings, and in following Him.
“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:11
There are plenty of things that you can choose to build your life on, plenty of worldviews and beliefs that are external to you. You can build your life on a foundation of personal ability or money or power or character. You can build your life on a foundation of doubt and uncertainty. You can even choose to build your life on love and generosity and kindness and relationships, all good things, but absent from Jesus, none of it stands on its own. There may be elements of all of this interwoven in the firm rock foundation that is Jesus, but if you don’t have Him as the foundation to everything you pursue, it will, ultimately, all be wobbly at best, and will almost certainly fall at some point, but when your life is built on Christ, it may get battered and bruised, but it will stand the test of time.
So, how about you, what do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to get rid of? What do you want to add? What do you want to change? Do you have health related goals, education related goals, sports related goals, family or friend related goals, God related goals? Take a minute to think about this, and take note of everything that comes to your mind, regardless of how huge or small it may seem.
Goals are important. A lot of people tend to discount them, especially when they are positioned as New Year’s Resolutions, because, frankly, most people aren’t very serious about keeping them or pursuing them, so they become just a thing that we do without any real intention of following through or making any change. However, goals are still wildly important. You need to have something that you are moving toward in life, something that you are pursuing, otherwise you will, almost inevitably, just stay stagnant in life, never doing what God has intended for you.
Here’s the thing though, when we set goals, when we make plans, we need to make sure that those goals and plans are firmly rooted and set on something secure, otherwise, they will be easily knocked down, discarded and destroyed.
Matthew 7:24-27 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
We see here Jesus giving an example of two houses. It looks like both are identical, or at least we are going to assume so. There’s nothing to indicate otherwise. So, we have two houses, both built with the same material, to the same specs. Both go through storms: rain, floods, wind. The only difference in these two houses is the foundation that they are built on. One is built on rock and the other on sand, and what we see is that the difference in the foundation is incredibly important. The difference in foundation results in one of the houses standing and weathering the storms that come against it and the other collapsing in fantastic fashion.
Obviously, Jesus is not literally talking about houses here, but rather, He is challenging us to look at what we have as a foundation for our lives and how that can change the trajectory of our lives. Just like both houses go through storms, each and every one of us has gone/is going/will go through storms in our lives. These storms may come in the form of the death of a loved one, a friend or family member. They may be in the loss of a relationship, not through death, but through abandonment, betrayal, or just growing apart, divorce, etc.... We may face storms of struggles in school or sports or your job or whatever hobby you have. You may face storms of self-identity, self image or bullying. You may face storms in your family with your siblings or your parents or your children. You may face financial storms. You may face health storms, sickness or injury. You may face mental health storms: depression, anxiety, apathy, suicidal thoughts. You may face spiritual storms, doubt, fear, etc…
So, again, I want you to take a moment to think about some of the storms that you are currently experiencing.
No one is immune from storms. They are going to come to everyone. What these verses in Matthew are asking us to consider, however, is what happens when those storms hit. When you come up against something that is hard and overwhelming and works against you and against the goals that you are pursuing, do you crumble, or do you stand? When we build our lives and set our goals on “sand” on something that is insecure and shifting and uncertain, we can’t hope to be able to stand in the storms, we are going to fall. Those hardships in life will derail our hopes and dreams and pursuits and we will find ourselves constantly trying to rebuild, constantly trying to come up with some workaround to compensate for the sand that our lives are built on. However, if we have a firm foundation, a foundation of rock, something secure and solid and immovable, while the storms may beat and batter, while our lives and goals may be damaged for awhile or need some shoring up, they won’t fall. We won’t fall. We will be able to stand and move forward and grow and be a place of refuge and comfort and security.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” This firm foundation is found in Jesus, in His words and teachings, and in following Him.
“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 3:11
There are plenty of things that you can choose to build your life on, plenty of worldviews and beliefs that are external to you. You can build your life on a foundation of personal ability or money or power or character. You can build your life on a foundation of doubt and uncertainty. You can even choose to build your life on love and generosity and kindness and relationships, all good things, but absent from Jesus, none of it stands on its own. There may be elements of all of this interwoven in the firm rock foundation that is Jesus, but if you don’t have Him as the foundation to everything you pursue, it will, ultimately, all be wobbly at best, and will almost certainly fall at some point, but when your life is built on Christ, it may get battered and bruised, but it will stand the test of time.
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