24-27 “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.”
Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)
I remember one of the first times I went to the beach in Florida. So much fun was had in the sand as the waves came crashing to shore.
Of course, one of the highlights was building a sand castle. We had our buckets and shovels and other objects to make cool prints in the sand.
As we were building, the tide started to come in and the water began to rise. Slowly, the water started to hit the base of our castle. So I quickly took as much sand as possible and dumped it in front of our beautiful masterpiece.
But to no avail, eventually the water and waves won out, the castle tumbled down. The next day it was completely gone, not even a tiny piece of evidence acknowledging it was ever built. A building or castle is only as good as its foundation.
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 concludes with a story about two builders.
He 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” (Matthew 7:24-27).
Thomas a Kempis stated, “The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.”
We all have laid some sort of foundation; whether it be intellectually, mentally, physically or spiritually. Everyone is building on something within every aspect of his or her life. The real question though, isn’t whether or not you have a foundation, but rather, how strong is it?
Athlete, you have laid a strong foundation physically and mentally. Your success in sport is a reflection of your foundation. You have experienced ”rain,” “flooding” and “wind” in your sport and training and have tested strong.
But what about other aspects of your life?
Reflect: If you built a foundation that was created with your faith and trust in God, and your actions each day were the outward expression of your house, would you trust its foundation and structure enough to live in it?
What is one step you can take today that would make your spiritual foundation stronger?
