FOUNDATIONS AND THE STORMS THAT TEST THEM

SOMETIMES... our lives feel like that house looks.  

We feel destroyed and beyond repair.  We feel like a failure. We thought we were doing the right things, and yet, bad things came anyway. I hear from you.  I know what you are going through. For some, it is financial ruin.  For others, adultery has destroyed your marriage.  Some of you live in heartbroken horror at the path your children have chosen. You raised them in the ways of the Lord and now they seem lost and far from Him and His mercy and grace.  Some of you are simply spending energy trying to not let others know how DESPERATELY lonely, DEPRESSED and AFRAID your days are.  Let me tell you something about the picture of that house:  It was not destroyed by a storm. It is a house whose foundation was neglected, not built correctly, and this weak foundation crumbled the house.

 Everything that is built is built on a foundation.

If the house is damaged, but the foundation is strong, the house can be easily restored. 

Evidently, according to Jesus, it isn't the STORM that destroys a HOUSE but the state of the foundation of the house WHEN THE STORM HITS.

Jesus spoke about the kind of foundations that held strong through the storms that WILL COME.  (Luke 6:46-49). 

From what He said, 
we should not judge the state of our foundation on the LACK of storms.  Evidently, and according to Jesus, storms hit everyone.  

We should judge our foundation by the LACK of falling apart when the storm comes. And they will come. 

You have been successful in a spiritual sense if YOU ENDURED THE STORM AND WERE STILL STANDING when it ended. 

I would like to say to those of you enduring the storm of an unfaithful husband, or a rebellious child, or financial distress, or the heartbreak of sickness, or despair, discouragement and depression:

WHEN THE STORM PASSES (and it WILL PASS)

you will still be standing strong.

Your life will NOT BE DESTROYED.

God will repair your heart, your soul and your spirit.  It isn't damage to the house that matters after a storm. It's whether or not the foundation held strong.

You will not fall.

You will stand.

I have seen many storms in my life.  I have felt as if they would destroy me and my life.  They did not.  God is faithful. He will hold you. He is there.  Look up and believe.

"As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will

show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep

and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but

could not shake it, because it was well built." - JESUS