Lent 2020 Day 34

Scripture Reading

Matthew 7:21-27

The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who do the will of God the Father. It's interesting that Jesus says that there will be some who will have done miracles, cast out demons, and preached in his name who will not enter heaven because they didn't have a relationship with God. It seems that there are some who will appear to be followers of Jesus but really aren't. Perhaps it is also possible that there are some who by most standards one would not consider a Christian but who are actually busy doing the will of God and thus will be allowed entrance into the kingdom of heaven. It is not left up to us to make those decisions, our responsibility is to be doing God's will as we serve him on this earth. 

Jesus illustrates his point by telling the story of the wise and foolish builders. Do you remember the children's song about this story? "The wise man built his house upon the rock/the foolish man built his house upon the sand/the rain came down and the waters rose up/and the walls come tumbling down." What Jesus wants us to see is that the foundations of our faith must be built upon him alone. Just as when you build a house, you don't want to build it on swamp land, because it will eventually begin to sink. The same is true with our faith in God. If our faith is based upon our good works (telling others about Jesus, doing miracles, casting out demons, church attendance, tithing, and reading our Bibles) then we are building on sand. None of those things will ever save us or make God love us anymore than he already does. Our faith must be built on the saving work of Christ! This means we accept God's free gift of salvation that Christ made possible through his life, death, and resurrection so that we as sinners might have a relationship with the holy God who created us. Because of God's holiness and our sinfulness we needed a mediator who would connect us to God, that mediator is Jesus Christ. It is only as our faith is based on the acceptance of what Christ did for us that we can say that we are like the wise builder. 

Prayer: Lord, I pray that I will be like the wise builder and make my foundation the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't want to be turned away and told that you never knew me, I want to be a faithful servant who knows you in the most personal and intimate way possible. Amen.