I was sure that I was standing on the rock that is solid ground.
You know the scripture – “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
The world is like sand – it keeps shifting and moving on a regular basis. This weeks top current story is this, next week it changes to that and on and on it goes, continual change. I believe I mentioned before that prominent professional counsellors advise people to stop watching the news. It is depressing and void of any hope, simply continual messages of hopelessness.
I have been getting a “theme” or repeat message lately. It goes something like this:
When you first become a Christian and you accept Jesus’ sacrifice for you and ask God to come into your life – you are then standing on the Rock. God calls Himself a Rock. Psalm 78:35
Your salvation and right standing with God are not based on anything you do, it is based on Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. These two facts are the solid base you are standing on. Similar to the picture at the top of the page.
You continue to grow in your faith and your understanding gets bigger and you are still standing on your original rock. It is a big rock, it does the job… for now. As you mature, your understanding, your knowledge and definitely your world keeps changing and life begins to swirl around you in waves and you keep standing and holding onto that same rock.
God showed me this year that my foundation had to change. I was stumped because I
was standing on the rock, the solid rock; I did not understand.
But for all the things that have come my way in my life, for the mysteries still to come and for the changing world we live in, God said my rock had to get bigger. It is fine with a little faith to have a little rock but when life hits you and tries to take you down, you need a bigger rock.
My mind went something like, “we need a bigger Jesus?!?”
In a way, yes. When we were a new believer we had a new believer understanding, as we grew we launched into a greater understanding, the Jesus we knew at the beginning has way more depth and revelation to offer us as we get to know Him better. The next illustration is a person standing on a rock and then the waves start to roll in and we wonder is our rock secure enough?
There is no way we, you and I will ever understand the who, whys, or the ways of God. He is so much more than we can even imagine. But I have learned this, the faith we had from the beginning of our journey, in no way does Him justice.
I was stumped again, how do you get the rock to grow?
The rock needs to grow in order for you to have security for your future. It is for the swirling, troubling, gigantic wave times of the world that we live in and we will need a big and solid foundation. God has already prepared the foundation, the secure rock for you, you will not have to do it.
Look again at the picture at the top. A person is standing on a rock, a good sized rock, it would probably be way to heavy to move with your hands. You watch as the tide goes out, the water level lowers and more and more of the rock is starting to be exposed.
As you look around, you see that your little rock that you thought it was, is actually a part of a huge rock base that is a firm land mass. This rock is not moving anywhere.
The rock did not actually grow, you simply got to glimpse what was under the water.
Similar to an ice berg – more is under the water than what is seen on the top of the water.
Life gets bigger, more complicated, harder and more bizarre, much like huge waves on the ocean. They come at you and threaten to topple you over and knock you off your rock. We may go down momentarily but the rock is not moving, and you can stand back up knowing that your base, your footing is solid under your feet.
Right now, so many things are at stake in our world. Unless we have a foundation big enough to take the “pressure” we may get lost in the overwhelming waves of life. You may be on your rock for a season, the rock you first went on but it will not be big enough for the waves to come. You will need a rock that will never be moved and all the time it was right under your feet, and you never knew it. The water level had not dropped enough to enable you to really see how big your rock is. When it is finally exposed you will marvel at the enormity of it.
How do you stay “glued” to your “Rock”?
1) Prayer – spending time with God who is the only one who can change the sifting sands is essential
2) Time Alone with God – this is different than prayer. It is spending time getting to know another individual – just like you would spend time with a friend, a spouse, this time it happens to be God.
3) Read Your Bible – get to know what God’s Word says about you, your life, the world and His part it in. When things start to overwhelm you, start repeating your memory verses.
4) Stay connected to other Christians – you may be on a rock but you do not have to be a separate all alone island. Just as the rock turned out to be a whole connected huge land mass, we too are connected. We need each other for encouragement, to bounce ideas off of, to help each other, to love each other and to look out for each other.
Are you feeling like the waves are going to sweep you away? Brace yourself for the next onslaught, but remember, that your footing, your ground, your rock is not moving – EVER.