The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.
Matthew 7:25 (CSB)
Jesus is telling a parable, a short story that teaches a lesson, about two men who each build a house. In this verse a hard storm hits the house of the man who obeyed Him. The storm does not skip his house, and following Jesus does not mean we will never face hard days.
The house stands for one reason, which Jesus gives in plain words: its foundation was on the rock. A foundation is the solid base a house sits on, and the wise man’s was already in place when the storm came.
Many Bible teachers believe the biggest storm in this story is the final judgment, the day when every person will stand before God. They also see the hard days of this life as smaller tests of the same foundation.
When trouble comes, it is tempting to measure our situation by how strong or weak we feel, as if our emotions were holding everything up. Jesus points us somewhere else, to what we are standing on. So when life gets hard, we ought to keep listening to Jesus and doing what He says, because His words are the rock the wise man built on.
The Bible goes one step further and tells us who the foundation really is: “For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).
Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again. Everyone who trusts Him is standing on a foundation that will hold on the day of judgment and in every hard day before it. Anyone who has not yet trusted Jesus can come to Him today.