ICS Daily Devotions
Heed Your Weather Warning System
Luke 6:46-48 (NKJV) “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.”
To be resilient means being able to bounce back despite repeated setbacks in life. For a physical object to bounce back, it needs to have a firm base. Similarly, for a Christian to be resilient, a solid foundation in the Word is a must.
Natural disasters can often give us a glimpse of what Jesus meant when He urged us to build a strong foundation in the above opening Scripture. News reports show us that floods can come suddenly, leaving many stranded and needing to be evacuated by helicopters. Houses without firm foundations can be quickly swept away due to the force of the floods that come upon them. Although most governments have talked about building early warning systems, including those that detect tsunamis in order to protect lives, natural disasters still manage to catch people off guard.
As Christians, we have a warning system in Jesus. He urges us to build a solid foundation in Him before the floods come to beat vehemently upon our lives. Jesus did not say if the floods would come but when, which means they would definitely come—it is just a matter of time.
If we want to be resilient, we need to do what Jesus has taught us—to listen, read and learn from Scripture, because it is the Word that gives us a strong foundation. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, but the retention rate is very much dependent on the condition of our hearts. If our hearts are right, the effect of God’s Word can multiply up to a hundredfold in our lives, which is why the enemy is quick to steal it by bringing tribulation and adversity our way to stop the Word from taking root in our hearts and enabling us to establish a strong foundation. We must also remember that faith requires a corresponding action; God wants us to live and walk out every aspect of our Christian faith, all that which we believe in our hearts.
Doing what Jesus says also includes living a consecrated and sanctified life through aligning our lives with the Word of God, and this is something that we will have to keep working at until we pass on to glory. Finally, we need to be connected with God; apart from Him, we can do nothing that would make us resilient.
Sermon Series : Resilience
