The Rock of Obedience

In the message "Laboring In Vain" we saw we must remove ourselves from the construction process and allow God to build every area of our life. We still must put forth effort - sometimes GREAT effort - but we can no longer build according to our own plans or rely on our own abilities; "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain" (Psalm 127:1).

We also saw one way to ensure God is building is to live according to the truth of His Word and "do what it says" (James 1:22). We cannot serve our Heavenly Father without aligning our life to His Word. At the end of a passage commonly referred to as "The Sermon on The Mount" (Matthew 5-7), Jesus stated the importance of being obedient to His Word.

Matthew 7:24-27
"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."

In this wonderful mountainside message, Jesus taught about Salvation; "enter through the narrow gate" (Matthew 7:13), but He also taught extensively about basic Christian living - what Paul referred to as being "in step with the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25). Jesus said that both the foolish and the wise man heard His words and set out to build a house, but only one man followed God's design - and only one house remained standing after the storm.

Salvation is never earned by "doing." But true believers will strive to be obedient to what Jesus taught; "If you hold to My teachings, you are really My disciples" (John 8:31). We are obedient because our heart has been transformed and His Spirit now compels us to follow; "We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands" (1 John 2:3). We may stumble and sometimes fall, we may even become frustrated at the frequency of our falls, but if we are a child of God we will continue to get back up and move toward obedience because of who we are in Christ!

Each of us have been given a choice on how to build our life - our way or God's way. We must allow our Heavenly Father to become our Master Builder. We must trust Him with ALL our heart as His plan for our life unfolds. He promises to work through us to build something eternally beautiful that will weather all storms. But His promise is only applied as we faithfully allow Him to build upon the rock of obedience.

Thanks Steve for your great pertinent messages about our daily Christian walk.

You have identified the most critical aspect of our daily challenge as Christians of learning gradually to be obedient to Christ and all His commandments! Yet this is a constant struggle in our strength "but with Christ, all things are possible". Nevertheless, the more we surrender to Him who can do more than we ever imagine, the load gets lighter. My prayer in response is, Lord help my unbelief in your power, presence and safety so that I can surrender more daily to you! Yet, we are not merely rational or spiritual but emotive beings with highs and lows that sometimes affects our ability and potential so that we end up acting on impulse not according to His Word. After those mistakes, we need to admit our failure and ask for his continual strength! However, in so far as we fall, we need to offer that same compassion to those around us who fail us daily!

God bless.

Tom