Matthew 7:24-25 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”

Jesus’ picture of the storm beating against the house isn’t hard to understand, is it? Our faith is constantly under attack in this life from a number of different sources. All of them beat against us and try to make our faith fall.

You know the kinds of storms of life that stretch your faith to the limits–health problems, financial worries, families that are falling apart. Sometimes the crisis comes from a more directly spiritual attack. The Apostle Paul once said that God “was pleased to save us through the foolishness of what was preached.” And that is how our human reason is tempted to see so much of what our Lord reveals about his grace–foolishness. No one is immune. Storms of doubt and skepticism rage against our souls.

But the faith that is planted squarely on the words and promises of Christ does not fall, “because it had its foundation on the rock.” We stand on a word that supports us. Sometimes that’s because the word is like a road map, pointing us along the roads we ought to take as we react to the storms that beat on our faith. Some paths of action are more like escape routes for us. Some will only take us deeper into the storm. Jesus’ words help us see the difference.

The bedrock of this foundation for our faith always takes us back to the changeless and faithful love we know best from the simple truth of the gospel. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. No greater love has anyone than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

It is this that led the apostle Paul to conclude: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We stand on a word that supports us, a firm foundation our faith can trust.