Dig the Foundation

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.  (Luke 6:47-49)

Jesus told the story of two builders here. One man dug deep and set his foundation on rock. The other didn't bother. He just built. And here's the thing: from the outside, those two houses probably looked exactly the same on a nice, sunny day. Nobody could tell the difference just by looking. It wasn't until the flood came and the water started beating against both houses that the truth came out.

So what actually separated these two men? It wasn't how much they'd heard. They likely heard the same teaching. The difference was what they did with it. One of them went and did the hard part nobody sees, digging down deep before he ever laid a stone. The other skipped straight to building on top of the ground, and honestly, it probably looked just fine for a while.

This is the same thing we see throughout Scripture about faith and works. Hearing the Word, receiving it, believing it, even speaking it out matters. But that's the part of the house everybody can see. The digging, actually doing what God told you to do, is the foundation.

Nobody sees it until the storm shows up and tests it. I've watched believers who had every visible piece of faith in place come apart under pressure because the unseen part, the doing, never got done.

Practical Application

Think of something God told you to do that you agreed with but never did. Go dig that foundation today, before the storm arrives to test it.

Matthew 7:24; Colossians 2:6