Matthew 7:24-28
Have you made any resolutions that 2019 will be different for you than 2018? In today’s scripture lesson Jesus teaches us why it is important to build on solid foundations. “Anyone who listens to my teachings and follows is wise, like the person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand; when the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
What kind of promises have you made to yourself that will enable you to live with hope and not live with despair? What kind of foundation are you building your life on? Is it build on the bedrock of Jesus? The decisions we make about our relation
ship with God will give shape to the foundation of life. If our faith decision is in the promises Jesus have made to us, we can live in power of true hope. If you try to stand on a foundation of humanism you will come to despair. The dark, hard bleak hours of life will bring your life to despair for humanism does not have power to give us hope. At some point we all will face struggles of life that can bring despair unless our faith is in God’s promise: “I am always with you.” The God we meet in Jesus will not bail out on you when the hard times come. Then you can hear the Biblical word that speaks to our despair. That word is, “Fear not, I am with you.” When the foundations of our lives stand on humanism we will come to despair during a time of sickness, or a time when we are brokenhearted for family and friends have not helped us and we are alone. In humanism people can believe government can solve the problems of life and the truth is government has nothing to offer you that can give you real hope. Many of the people in America have turned their lives over to phony gods.
In 2019 will you have real inner peace? The promise of God will give our life a foundation that will keep you and give your life real inner peace. Look at the turmoil caused by your choices in careers. I have spent time working with people that had choices of careers that left their life in turmoil. Some people make bad financial choices and have problems because of this. Credit card debt has produced so much stress that it brings brokenness to marriages. If you listen to news reporters that are giving the ‘so called’ news it will rob you of inner peace. The news is about five percent fact and ninety-five percent what someone or some group has an opinion about.
We have so much corruption in government and many areas of our lives the inner peace that God gives has been lost in the swamp of sin and evil. But if the people of faith will read the Bible, take time to pray for God’s guidance, worship and give thanks to God for our daily blessing God will provide each person with a real inner peace. The truth is that without worship you have no source of peace. The ways of the world do not have power to overcome the God we meet in Jesus. The ways of the world put Jesus on the cross to die, but God said, “No”, to the ways of world. He said to us, “You have eternal life when you live by faith in Jesus.” This will produce a life with inner peace
You see, God’s amazing grace will allow you a foundation to stand and live on that evil and sin cannot rob from you. A life that is filled with the caring loving heart can see that this amazing grace has the power to overcome sin and evil. When we live under the power of this amazing grace we will care and love our family and friends. This amazing grace does give to us a new life. It is a very foolish person that builds life on the sands of the world. Life on the sands of the world will be broken by sin and evil. The life lived on the sands of the world will end in a mighty crash. Life lived with faith in Jesus will withstand the storms of the world. Jesus speaks to us out of the storms and says “I am with you, fear not.”
In 1779 John Newton wrote these words because he had experienced the amazing grace that God gave to him that changed his life of despair to a life with hope. “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”
Can we also rejoice in this amazing grace? Seek and ask. God offers unlimited grace that washes away even our sins.
