The world seems a bit shaky right now. COVID, Afghanistan, Cuba, and other international events interact with personal issues like loved ones with cancer, relationships in crisis, and financial uncertainty. No wonder fear is creeping in the lives of everyone.
We need a place of stability from which to navigate life. We need a rock that we can stand on during turbulent times. As a Christian pastor, I believe that rock is Jesus Christ and living according to His teachings.
In Luke 6:47-48, Jesus said, “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. (NASB95)
Jesus gives us three things we need to do to have our house built on the rock:
• We need to come to Jesus.
• We need to hear His words.
• We need to act on His words.
When Jesus was here on this planet in the form of man, people would follow Him and they had to put quite a bit of effort into getting to where Jesus was doing ministry. Maybe you had a transformational encounter with Jesus Christ when you were younger, but if you haven’t, now is a great time to come to Jesus. You might have to put some effort into it.
Then, we must listen to the words of Jesus. The simplest way to do this is to read the Bible. Jesus has given us a positive code of conduct for living in this shaky world. But, we cannot live by a code unless we know what that code is. This requires gaining information. I cleverly avoided using the word education since many think that this a painful process.
The third thing we need to do is act. We need to act on this code of conduct (it is like a Christian Manifesto). We decide that we are going to make life better for others and then get to work on making it happen. Oh-oh, another word that people don’t want to think about — work. Let’s get off our couches and recliners, put down the handheld devices, and help someone.
Build your house on a rock by coming to Jesus, listening to what He says and doing it!
I am praying that 2021 will be the best year of your life so far.
