You can’t beat a good children’s song with actions, and one of the ones I remember the most from when I was little was ‘the wise man built his house upon the rock’ – in fact I am singing it now, and will continue to sing for the remainder of the time writing this blog, and quite possibly the remainder of the day!
The song is from on of Jesus’ easiest parables to understand. Wise man built his house upon the rock, whilst the foolish man built his house upon the sand. The rain came down and the floods came up. The rain came down and the floods came up. The rain came down and the floods came up… The house on the rock stood firm, whilst the house on the sand fell flat.
The theme for this week is ‘give me strength’, and you may be struggling to wonder what this has got to do with the parable of the builders. Our quote comes from C S Wade who says…
Your source of strength comes from your foundation. Stay grounded, focused and believe in God.
What is the foundation in your life? Jesus makes it all sound incredibly simple, saying that our foundations should be built on God. If our foundations are built on God, then no matter what life throws at us, whatever silly decisions we make, we will have strength to carry on, and to not lose everything of importance. We are also told that we do not need to do anything in our strength, but can rely on God.
I often wonder how this can possibly be, even though I have experienced it myself many times. Although I know it is mainly about our personal relationship with God, I think it is also about being part of that larger community of the Church. Last Sunday evening I went to the service at Canterbury Cathedral with the Archbishop of Canterbury, bringing together the week of prayer leading up to Pentecost. It was a fantastic service, it was great to see so many people that I knew, including so many Archbishop’s pupils as well. It is services like these that remind me, being a Christian is not something you do on your own, yes, you always have God with you, but also you share foundations of faith with millions across the world.
We need to have our own foundations in God, and that is where our strength will come from. But what a blessing to know that we are stronger together, and that although we may have differing ideas on some things. The fundamentals are shared. The Church has amazing foundations that we share. We cannot be shaken.
Challenge: find other examples from the Bible that talk about buildings as metaphors for our relationship with God – there are lots
Prayer: Father God, we thank you that we do not need to do anything in our strength, but that our strength is found in you. Help us to strengthen our foundations in you, so that we cannot be shaken when tough times come. Amen