Building a house in the mountains can be precarious. We have to consider what’s under our foundation to know whether our home will weather the test of time.
Is it rock? Scree? Dirt that will wash away in the first soaking storm?
There is another thing to consider: No matter how firm the footing underneath our foundation, how about the drive to get there? If a massive stone crashes into us along the road, we are just as dead as if our house falls off the side of a cliff.
We have to survey the entire path we need to travel to reach our mountainside home. We can’t afford to look at our new home off in the distance, say, “That’s so beautiful over there,” and forget that we’re not home yet. We still have the road to travel, and we cannot afford to be hit by falling rocks along the way.
Let’s look at some falling rocks we have to watch out for:
Falling Rock #1:
James 4:7 tells us to submit ourselves to God. We must resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
Submission to God is like walking under a covered walkway. The devil can sit overhead raining temptation and trouble on us by the handful, and it will bounce off and tumble down the hillside without doing us any damage at all. We may hear it pinging on the roof, but nothing will touch us.
Falling Rock #2:
Hebrews 10:26 warns us that if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for our sins.
Saying, “Oh, well, I can ask forgiveness after the fact,” is the same as stepping out from under God’s covered walkway. Our home is still out there waiting, but our journey no longer leads us down a sure path. We may be destroyed spiritually along the way.
Falling Rock #3:
James 2:10 cautions us that if we keep the whole law but fail in one point, we are then accountable for all of it.
Our walk with Jesus is by faith, not by the law. Trying to live a good enough life is like climbing up one of the supporting poles and walking along the top of God’s covered walkway. We have put ourselves closer to the falling rocks, and we will only die sooner when they come tumbling down. Only God’s covered walkway can protect us from the decimations of the devil.
Falling Rock #4:
John 10:10 red flags the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus offers himself as an alternative; for he came that we might have life and have it abundantly.
With those words, Jesus not only provided a walkway, he enclosed it with shatterproof Lexan. The devil will try to tempt us from Jesus’ walkway, showing us all manner of enticements, but his temptations will not get through, not as long as we walk with the Father as our master and king.
Falling Rock #5:
Hebrews 11:6 lifts up God’s utmost requirement: Without faith, it is impossible to please the Father; we must have faith that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
This is the biggest rock of all, and it crushes more believers than any other. God is a god of the invisible, of the spirit, and of our hearts. We cannot see or touch him, and it is through our faith that he becomes real to us. When we decide to believe on him he chooses to make himself real to us. Until then, we are no more than walking target practice for the devil, and we live with the certainty of having our heads eventually smashed in.
Life is filled with everyday falling rocks that all people have to endure. Then there are the temptations the devil chucks at us, hoping to bring us down. It is when we walk under the protection of Jesus that we will make it safely to the other side.
Stick close to Jesus, and we are safe from all the falling rocks the devil tosses our way.
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