Build your house on the rock is taken from a parable of Jesus in which he is instructing us to build our lives on Him and His truth. I have found this parable to mean different things to me during different seasons of my life.
Build Your House on the Rock
What did Jesus mean when he instructed us to build our house on the rock?
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-27 NKJV)
Of course, none of us want to be the man whose house is destroyed in the storm! So how do we know if we are building on the rock or the sand?
Build Your House on the Rock Song
It was Psalty singing children’s songs that first taught me to build my house on the rock. Anyone else grow up with Psalty?
“Don’t build your house on the sandy land, Don’t build it too near the shore. Well, it might look kinda nice, but you’ll have to build it twice, Oh, you’ll have to build your house once more”
The idea of building anything twice is enough to make me question my decisions. Beneath the fun kids’ song is an important truth. Our choices can lead to destruction or safety.
What we choose to believe and follow will affect us in ways we cannot foresee.
It All Begins with our Thoughts
I want to look at this parable from a different angle. Rather than “build your house on the rock” or “build your house on the sand” meaning actions, I’d like to discuss how they can be thoughts. After all, our actions are often a direct result of our thoughts.
I find that we need to choose our thoughts. We have to learn to identify the toxic ones and dismiss them, always measuring our thoughts against the word of God.
Jesus carefully mentions both the sand and the rock so let’s look at them individually.
What Does it Mean to Build Your House on the Sand?
What do you build your thoughts on?
The always present financial worry can destroy your joy. It is a true concern, after all, we have to pay our bills! We need money to purchase food and clothing.
Are broken relationships and health problems stealing your peace?
Do you worry about what other people think or are you busy comparing yourself to others? This can be a trap and spiral both your thoughts and actions down quickly.
Do you become easily overwhelmed when things go wrong, leaving your thoughts in a negative spin (that was me last week when both my dishwasher and washing machine broke!).
Build your house on the sand means our thoughts are built on the worries and concerns of this world. The everyday distractions and fears that prevent us from trusting in our Lord and Savior.
These toxic thoughts are the doubts that sneak in, the anxieties that need to be released.
What Does it Mean to Build Your House on the Rock?
Build your house on the rock would then be the opposite of build your house on the sand. Keeping in mind that we are talking about thoughts here, what then would be thoughts built on the rock?
Our thoughts would be built on Biblical truths! Building our thoughts on the promises of God will serve us much better than building our house on the sinking sand!
Jesus knew were are prone to worry and fear. He speaks these encouraging words a little before his wise and foolish builders sermon.
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25-34)
Maybe this is the first step. If we first build our thoughts on Christ and focus on His truths and promises, then our lives will also fall into sync.
Taking Every Thought Captive is an excellent Bible study by Sunshyne Gray. She taught me how to recognize thoughts that do not line up with the Bible. I was amazed at how quickly they can take over my thought patterns and cause fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy, etc.
She taught me to measure my thoughts against the word of God. This was a new concept to me. Up until this point, I had only measured actions against the word of God. I highly recommend the course. It was very helpful to me!
Building a Solid Foundation with God
“Building on the Rock:10 Lessons Jesus is Trying to Teach Us” touches on many of the lessons Jesus is instructing in the verses leading up to this parable.
Building a solid foundation on God begins with believing the words of Christ. By building a thought life built on scripture, we become solid in our faith and our actions will follow.
In the parable, the storms of life came and the house built on the sand fell. The house built on the rock stood firm.
Life is hard. Trials come at you from nowhere, destroying your contentment and security. These are scary times right now. Who can we trust? Who will protect us?
If your security is Christ then the storm cannot destroy you!
Those storms will not cause the worry and fear that storms so often bring because we know we are built securely on a loving and caring heavenly father.
When He is our rock, we can withstand any storm life brings. When we choose to build our lives on something other than Him, those same storms will destroy us.
So, dear friends, I challenge you today to build your thoughts on things above! Paul understood this well when he wrote.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8
Are you ready to build your house on the rock?
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About the author
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-27 NKJV)
Hi. Early this morning a I was praying, and this scripture came to my spirit and I started to to praying about, later stil meditating about it I remembered the book of James says let us be doers of the word of God. I asks myself questions about rock, sand, rain and storm. I see your clip. I was so glad to get the understanding. God bless you Madam
I am so happy that this post confirmed what God was teaching you. Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you for the sharing. I was touch by your explanation and remind me to build my family on the rock.
I am so glad this post resonated with you! Have a great day!
God richly bless you for sharing and permitting yourself to also be a blessing to us.
I’ll also share with my lovely children,friends, and the Body of Christ.
Good teachings, I’m so much blessed.
I am so glad! Thank you for stopping by!
Am very much blessed , i will share with my friends and family.God bless you.
I am so thankful Hellena! God is good! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
The rock is biblical truth, but more than that it is truth itself. Truth existed before the bible, which is God. God has given us truth and we must be like the wise man who builds his house on the truth. Jesus also builds His house on truth as seen in Matthew 16:18. Those who are called to the ekklesia (church) on the rock are those who have heard the truth from the Father in heaven not from others of flesh and bones (Matthew 16:14;John 8:44). The wise “men” also live in Jesus’ ekklesia. That is”…Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”( John 18:37 ) “…who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man…” (Matt 7:24). “O Lord, who shall dwell on your holy hill? He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;” (Psalms 15:1-2). speaking the truth in love ( Eph 4:15), the truth is in Jesus (Eph 4:21). As mentioned in Matthew 16, the Father gave the truth to Cephas. This reveals there is more truth then what is written, and we are confirmed by the Spirit that the “Spirit of truth will guide you” (John 16:13). This ambassador of truth that is forgotten in modern Christianity has put aside the full truth. “…the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” (Acts 10:45). The Spirit gave them truth and they spoke in truth in tongues and praises to God. The Spirit in a believer produces the fruits of the Spirit (love, peace, patience, kindness, etc) which each of these abstract concepts are a piece of unwritten truth as each believer’s life produces fruit. The fruit however becomes a true story of real Godly truth because it is what God created as truth. Love is truth. Truth is not completed as if the Spirit died or simply lives in the Bible, but alive within the living ekklesia born as babies in the Spirit in truth, writing new testimonies of truth in truth by truth and for truth throughout the lives of the believers, and the fullness of the ekklesia. “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16), that is those in the ekklesia. And confirmed by the love and fulfillment of Romans 8:28 by the ekklesia in the truth and power of God.
Yes! Thank you so much for leaving such an inspiring comment!
Thank u very much for the word of God
Thank you very much for stopping by. I am so glad you found this helpful!
I love this new perspective on a very familiar scripture. Building our thoughts on the rock is vital in order to stand in difficult circumstances.
Those thoughts can make us or break us!
I love this perspective! It reminds me of that verse from Proverbs 23, “for as (we) think, so (we are).” Paraphrase mine, but there’s so much truth to mine out of these verses!
Absolutely! Our actions, good and bad, are a result of our thoughts. Nothing like Proverbs to set us straight 😉 Thanks for reading!
Hah, totally forgot about Psalty! Thanks for the reminder that we need to build our lives upon the rock, including our thoughts. ” Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. “
Gotta love Psalty! Yes, it starts with our thoughts. Thanks for reading!
You are so right that we have to build EVERY aspect of our lives on the Rock, even our thoughts. That’s such a great insight.
This song has been going through my mind today too as I’ve been thinking about the prompt! It’s so true that building our life is one thing but building our thoughts is an other entirely. This is a good reminder of the importance of choosing our focus well. Visiting from FMF #32.
Don’t you love kid songs? Such simple lessons that we adults often forget. Thank you for reading!
It’s Amazing where God lead me today in my time with him.
He’s just so beautiful Jesus.
Thank you Heavenly Father.
And thank you for this post. As well thank you ladies for sharing about Psalty. I have never heard of this.
I looked it up and it really put a smile on my face.
I will spread the joy.
Thanks again
I am so glad that you have been encouraged! I hope you visit again 🙂
I’ve never heard of this children’s song before. So neat. Thanks for sharing! Visiting from FMF where I’m in the 22 spot.
It’s definitely worth looking up. Thanks for reading 🙂
Philippians 4:8 has been a bit of a mantra for me lately. I find myself having to repeat, rehearse and say it out loud repeatedly. Otherwise, it is amazing how quickly the thoughts can get off kilter! Really enjoyed your post!
I don’t think I’ve given that verse enough attention. It is time I do! Thanks for reading 🙂
Yes! I grew up with Psalty too! Thanks for linking that song to the Phil 4 verse, such a helpful reminder. I’m hoping to homeschool so I’ll have to have a look around your blog later.
Yeah! Another Psalty lover 🙂 We really enjoy homeschooling. We are on our 7th year. I hope you do check out some of my other posts!
Yes!
I instantly started singing the song too. Good thoughts and great job in a short 5 minutes.
I grew up with Psalty. I don’t know if that is who you know it by, but I stil love that big blue singing songbook 🙂
Love where you took this. Thoughts. Great FMF post.
Thanks!