Matthew 7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:”
It matters how we RESPOND to God’s Word. While we are to LISTEN and LEARN God’s Word, we are to be LIVING out the teachings that we have learned. This thinking comes from Jesus Himself. As Jesus wrapped up the greatest sermon ever preached, He brought home the importance of APPLYING what He has taught. He did not preach just so people would have INFORMATION. His preaching went beyond information to providing INSTRUCTIONS, and those instructions called for APPLICATION. For Jesus, the one hearing needed to become a DOER.
To help His listeners grasp this, He concludes as a master teacher with an illustration to show the results of our response. He will say one responder is WISE as opposed to one being FOOLISH. The WISE will hear and then DOES. The FOOLISH hears but does NOT do. His illustration then reveals the consequences of the response as both will be facing storms. He likens the WISE to one who will build his house on solid ground and the FOOLISH to one who builds his house on shaky sand. These decisions determine what will happen when the storms of life hit. The house on a solid foundation stands while the house on shaky sand falls.
Your decision to be a doer, to obey what God says, has significant consequences as your life is able to withstand the trials of life, while the decision to just hear but not apply God’s Word will have you falling and failing as the trials of life hit.
So again, we must let it sink in that how we respond to God’s Word matters. With Jesus, there is the EXPECTATION of APPLICATION to His INSTRUCTIONS.
How about you? How are you responding to God’s Word? Are you a DOER of what you have heard or just a hearer of the Word? Are you a learner who LIVES what you are learning?
On your DATE with the Word, are you a WISE person who applies the Word of God so that your life will be built on a solid foundation? Or are you a FOOLISH person?
God did not give us His Word just for information, but for our TRANSFORMATION and TRANSFORMATION only happens with APPLICATION!
Continue Strong being a DOER of the Word,
And remember to DATE the Word