“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.” Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Every life will be tested. The storms will blow, the winds will whip and the rain will beat against us. Sometimes over and over and over again. What survives will have its foundation built on the Rock of Jesus. We wait patiently for God to lift us out of the mirey bog with slimy mud squishing between our toes as He takes us through the process of changing our hearts – ridding us of what needs to go and equipping us for what needs to be brought forth. Changing us in incremental measures to be more and more like Jesus. Not exactly a fun process -- to be sure – but a necessary one, leaving beautiful, jaw-dropping, awesome results. The patina of a believer who has walked through the fire with the Lord will shine “like the stars in the universe as they hold out the Word of life” (Philippians 2:15).
No one relishes the hard, Amen? But when things are going swimmingly well, when the sun is shining brightly and our needs are all met we rarely look up, call out or desire to be led. We think we have it all together. And we stay on the same plain - about a mile wide and an inch deep - and God wants us to go further still with Him. He loves us resting secure in Him both on our sunny days and our days when the winds are blowing hard against us. His desire is for us to discover, like the Apostle Paul, for our sufficiency to be found in Him and not in the externals. With Him we may have internal perpetual peace and joy as we rest between His all-sufficient shoulders. He is our “more than enough”. He is always our “more than enough”. And we can so trust Him with our lives and the lives of all we hold dear.
It also behooves us to think back over our own lives and remember how God has led us in our times of indecision – shutting doors we wanted open and opening doors we would have rather had shut. When He gently moved us forward when we were stalled or protected us in our grave (or not so grave) times of danger. How He was near to us comforting us during days of grief and helping us in times of need. We can know that if He was faithful then He will also be faithful now and we can rest secure in Him.
“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.” Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV)