Stress and the Christian
Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is 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. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:13-16 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
I’d like to start this study looking at the above scriptures and discussing what they mean to us. Once we are saved, we are told that we are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood for God. Often we are told to “be holy” just as God is holy. Usually we brush over those verses though because we know that’s impossible for us. Unfortunately when we do that, we often wind up not even trying, and when someone calls us on it, we get indignant and tell them they’re being legalistic, and that we’re not under the law anymore. Of course that’s true, we’re not under the law anymore, we’re under grace, what we fail to realize is that God can and will give us the grace we need to do what He has called us to do. In this case, the calling is high—to be holy. It’s much easier to deal with though when we realize that being holy is the outcome of many little steps. It’s the goal, it’s what we are to strive for each day, one little step at a time, one decision at a time.
Now let’s look at what Jesus said in the passage in Luke. He asks His disciples why are they calling Him Lord when they’re not obeying Him. He then proceeds to explain to them and to us, why we need to pay attention to Him and obey Him. Notice that He gives two examples in this passage; and example of the person who obeys Him and an example of the person who doesn’t obey Him. In both examples however the newly built house is hit by a flood and torrent! So obedience doesn’t mean that we won’t have problems, that’s for sure! The obedient one’s house was hit just as hard as the other one! So what was the difference? Keep in mind now that we are the house. The house of the person who is disobedient collapses and is totally destroyed while the house of the one who obeys wasn’t even shaken!
So now we have to ask ourselves, which ones are we? Are we collapsing? Are we shaken? Or do we stand firm when the flood of hard times or calamity hits us? I’m afraid that I had to admit that I was someone who pretty much collapsed. I still believed, but I was always worried and stressed out. This told me that I had some work to do and so I began to pray. The first thing I wanted to know and that we all need to know is what do we do if we realize that we’re not able to stand firm during the storms of life? That same passage gives us that information too. Read it one more time.
Luke 6:46-49 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is 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. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Here we see that the secret is the foundation has to be right, the foundation must be built on Jesus and must dug deep. I don’t think it’s a surprise to any of us that Jesus is the foundation and that it must be Him or it won’t work, but what does it mean to “dig deep”? To answer that, let’s look at the opposite first, which would be shallow. Something done shallowly is something that has been done in such a way that it lacks depth of intellect, knowledge or intelligence. So to dig deeply we need to supply knowledge and intelligence.
Let’s look at what a couple of other verses say about this first before we get into it so we have a little more to go on:
Ephesians 2:19-22 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Isaiah 33:6 He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
Isaiah 28:16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
Digging a deep foundation on Jesus requires time and commitment from us. It’s not something done quickly or with little thought. That really does make sense though since the ultimate outcome is quite important. In fact, it’s so important that Jesus tells us to count the cost of it before we begin.
Luke 14:28-30 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
Since this is already getting quite long, I’d like to stop here and let you reflect on all of the verses we discussed today and all that’s been said so far before we continue tomorrow.
