Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭24‬

What do you think is more foolish? Find the perfect spot to build your house. Collect all of the building materials and store them there? Or to find a place on the beach and build a house in an area that is susceptible to storms and destruction?

Neither option is very wise. In the first option, there is no shelter whatsoever. When the storms come, you have everything you need to be safe, but you haven’t put it together.In the second option, when the storm comes, what you have built is destroyed.

It’s one thing to have the right materials to build and have the right place to build on. It’s quite another to take those materials and actually build.

Jesus tells the story of two houses. Let’s assume that the building materials used to build these houses are exactly the same. They are high-quality, they are exactly what you need.

This story isn’t so much about the building materials or the location is it is what you do with the materials you have. Inactive faith is no faith at all.

Just before he tells the story about the two houses, Jesus warns those listening to him that there will be many who claim to know him, but he won’t know them, because they have not lived a life of active faith.

Following Jesus isn’t about knowing him, and knowing all sorts of scripture, and knowing all the right things to say. Following Jesus is having an active faith. Building a house of grace, of mercy, and of love. Building a house in which people can run to for shelter in the midst of the storm.

What can you do today to make your faith more active in the lives of those around you? What can you do today to start building a house that will withstand the strongest storms?