The Rock

Acting out your faith

Most of us know the scripture in the New Testament where Jesus shares a parable in Matthew 7 regarding the wise man who built his house on a rock. Jesus calls those foolish who builds his house on the sand where there is no solid foundation. For us to understand this parable we have to go back and read the previous verses at the beginning of the chapter. Jesus warns in verses 15-23 against those who are false prophets who think they served God, but never really did. He goes further to say we ought to test these prophets by their fruit. A tree bearing good fruit is a good tree, and a tree bearing bad fruit is a bad tree. In verse 21 Jesus states that those who do the WILL of God will enter heaven.

Notice that Jesus uses the word “DOES” when speaking of the WILL of God? And then later in verse 24 He says that the person who ACTS on His words is like the wise man who built his house on the rock. These are both action words that support the scripture in James 2:17 which states that faith without ACTION is dead. We can sit around all day and use our words to tell everyone that we have faith in Jesus, and even convince ourselves that we are all set in our faith, but if we truly laid our hearts bare before the Lord and sharing every facet of our heart, are we actually taking any steps towards bearing good fruit? Jesus said in the opening verse of this portion of scripture: “ Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15) When we do the hard heart work and lay our heart bare before the Lord, whose opinion really matters, is does not leave room to live a false life before those whose opinions of us do not even matter. If we live a life that pleases God by acting on the words of Jesus then everyone else’s opinion of us will not hurt us, because that is not where our treasure lies.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus tells Peter that upon “this rock” He will build His church. The rock in this context is the revelation Peter had through God that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. Who is the church? The church is you and me who live our lives daily walking WITH Jesus who is the Son of the living God. Walking with Jesus is delightful. He loves to be included in our every moment. His will is to lay our hearts bare before Him daily and not hide our hearts that inwardly might look like ravenous wolves. His will is an acting out of Him at the foundation when the winds and rain hit hard in life. What does that look like you ask? When things get hard, really hard, we first turn to Jesus and tell Him how hard it is, but that we trust His plans and that we will lay down our own ideas of how to fix it. It looks like asking Him what to do next, rather than doing it and then afterwards asking Him. As humans our knee jerk reaction is to act on our fleshly emotions, when all He desires is to have us run it by Him and ACT on His commandments; like being quick to forgive, or loving our enemies.

I have tried holding onto my own plans and I will say in the moment for one little second it satisfies, but I have also experienced God’s grace where He has called me into this place where He is right there whispering to my heart: “Lay this at my feet where I spilt my precious blood for you, and trust me that My ways are higher even when you can’t understand yet.” The second option does not last for one small moment, but rather impacts others beyond just myself and when the storms of life comes I have been trained by the One who won’t allow for things to fall from beneath me as the man who built his house on the sand.

So, what can you do today to start moving in your faith? Ask God and allow for Him to not just be your savior but your LORD. Allowing Him to be Lord means you let go of your own will and plans and invite Him to lead you in all your ways. Personally for me this week I have been inviting Him into small moments of parenting and here’s an example: Today my son was really upset and crying (way too long) over a painting he painted. He kept sobbing because he made the eyes the wrong color. I wanted to just distract him but I stopped and asked God how to respond. God told me to pick him up and take him to a different room and tell him I know that painting was special to him. He told me to tell Luka I know it makes him sad because it is special to him. My son instantly stopped and calmed down because he felt so seen and heard. God placed the idea in my mind to trace the original with Sharpie, and when I asked Luka if I can do this for him he lit up and ran to the table. I wonder how many awesome moments I missed so far because I did not invite the Lord in to ask His plan and ways at the situation at hand?