Thoughts for the Day

Jesus also told them this parable....I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock, when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.'

(New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Perhaps the modern equivalent of the parable that Jesus told about the two houses, one built on rock and the other built on ground with no foundations, would be the housing estate built on a flood plain, or sandcastles built near the sea! With climate change we all understand about the problems of being too near water, never mind watching small children get upset when the tide comes in and washes away their beautifully built sandcastles.

Houses need solid foundations, and so do Christians. If our foundations (or our values) are built on the things of this world rather than the things that God wants, then we are not being wise. Notice Jesus speaks of someone who "hears my words and acts on them." It is not enough to have faith in God. When we are faced with His message of what to do, we also have to act on it and make changes to our lives.

A pandemic, like the present one, can help us to see that we need to press the reset button, as it were. We need to start again, to re-evaluate our lives to see what is important and what is unimportant, and then make changes to our future.

Tuesday 19th May, follow up thoughts

Lord God,
You know our every thought and plan.
Help us to re-evaluate our lives in this time of limbo,
so that we may realign our desires with yours,
and build our future not on the flimsy things of this world,
but on You our rock who sustains us.
Amen.