A House on a Rock

As a little girl, one song that I remember learning in Sunday School was 'The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came tumbling down. The foolish man built his house upon the sand and the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood firm." Well, at least that was part of the song.

When I was preparing for today's blog, the Holy Spirit really spoke to me on being dead to sin. We hear a lot of being dead to sin and alive in Christ, but what does that really look like in your life? I realized that when I count myself dead to sin, I simply remind myself that I no longer have to respond to sin's demands. Christ is giving me the FREEDOM and the STRENGTH to say NO!

Romans 6:11 - 13 states, "That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God."

Did you know it takes 21 days to form a new habit? 21 days of consistently changing your thought patterns and actions. I often times look at sin as bad habits. Bad habits that I easily fall prey to over and over again. A situation arises and I react the same way over and over again. I know I shouldn't. How many times have you said, 'But I just can't help myself.'

I just can't help myself! You are absolutely RIGHT! You CAN'T help yourself! We can try over and over again, but we are building a house on sand and when the rains and the floods come, it will wash away every time!

So how do I stop the cycle?

1. Have you received and accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior of your life? Have you verbally and with your whole heart committed your life to Christ?

2. Have you identified unconfessed sins in your life and confessed them to Christ?

3. Knowing that those sins can easily resurface what are you doing that will trigger your heart and your thought process to remind yourself that you no longer have to respond to sin's demands?

You best defense is to be grounded in God's Word daily. Growing closer to Him will trigger your heart and your thought processes back to Him, breaking the pattern of sin.

However, in spite of all God has done to empower me to keep me from sub combing to old, sinful habits, I still find myself failing and sinning. People still sin after they become Christians. So I must confess those sins and agree with God in His assessment of my actions. God will then strengthen me to walk with greater victory over sin in the future!

Recognizing that I will occasionally continue to think that building my house on the sand will hold strong, I must continually day after day continue to build with solid bricks and mortar building my house on the ROCK, so when the rains and the floods come my house will stand firm!

Blessings,

Jill

P.S. As we discussed building our houses on the rock today, I would ask for prayers for the people of Parkersburg, Iowa. Many lost their homes and lives in the tornados that swept through Iowa on Sunday evening. This is an email I received from a friend, who's mother-in-law (Bertha) was affected by this tradegy.

Al's mother lives in Parkersburg, IA and her home was destroyed by Sunday night's tornado. She did not make it to the basement in time and it is only by the grace of God that she is alive.

A neighbor found her in the rubble of her home. He found sheets to help slow the bleeding, boards and pillows to transport her by ATV to the fire station where she was taken by ambulance. We knew that she had been taken because a giant x was placed in her driveway and we started calling all emergency rooms and placing family members at each of the area hospitals till we could find her. One family member did see her being lifted into the ambulance so we at least knew she was receiving immediate attention somewhere.

My mother-in-laws name is Bertha, she is 85 years old and a fighter. Her left lung is collapsed, with broken ribs. The left side of her body was injured, and the Drs say something of great force went through her rotator cuff of her left arm. She has multiple fractures, cuts and bruises and open wounds. There is some muscle gone from her left leg.

Only the floorboards and basement of her home are left. We have no idea where her appliances went, the carpeting is gone, there are no walls. Her car is upside down in her back yard. The neighbors did make it to the basement but even the floor boards were ripped off their house and a car and golf cart ended up in the basement with them.

We were in the town of Parkersburg today to salvage what we could from Bertha's home. I cannot even begin to describe the devastation all around. However many more lives could have been lost. I am hearing miracle after miracle of how people lives were protected and saved. People from all across Iowa are coming to aide of the people of Parkersburg.