Something that’s incredible to me about these verses is the natural expectation of hardship. It’s not a question of IF the rain comes down, or if the streams rise, or if the winds blow and beat the house — it’s only a question of when. Jesus words aren’t pessimistic, they simply point to the reality that many of us have probably already experienced before: the storms of life often reveal what our foundation is truly built on. Jesus knows the broken world we’re living in and He knows the brokenness inside each human being that adds up to an unpredictable world full of hurt and hardship. But how incredible is it that He doesn’t leave us to get washed away by it all, instead He provides a way for us to remain steady among even the biggest storms of life. Both of the people who Jesus mentions hear Jesus’ words, experience the same hardships, AND they also both do some building. The only difference between them is what they each build their house on; externally, their houses probably looked similar but when the real testing came, the house built on sand doesn’t stand a chance. What an opportunity we have to do some self-reflection and ask God to reveal to us what we are building our lives on and what we are investing in. God has already provided the rock foundation for us, now it’s up to us to decide where we will build.
“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