John 16:33
We Will Have Troubles in this World
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Matthew 7:24-29
Faithful Builders and Foolish Builders
24 “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. 25 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. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Problems and troubles in our minds can haunt us and live with us in our memories for years...Something troubling can happen to a family member, a friend, or to us and that memory can stay with us, sometimes for a lifetime...Life is not perfect, and life is not fair...When Jesus came to earth He taught so often to the outcasts, the shepherds, the trouble ones, the lepers, those who were sick, those who needed things, and those who mourned and needed comforting...These groups at times had their own problems...To these people life also appeared not to be as fair to them as it did to others...
So let us be faithful builders and have a solid foundation in our life for troubles...
The stories of pain, suffering, and trouble have been around now since the fall of man...These troubles will haunt our memories and mankind until suffering leaves this world...These stories of troubled lives will continue until Jesus returns in His Second Advent...
When we believe in Jesus He tells us very plainly that we will have troubles in our lives...Followers of Jesus understand this...He makes that so clear...So what can we do about our problems?...Jesus talks about us building a strong foundation in our lives...And that foundation is all about our faith in Him and His Father...The stronger our faith is, the better we handle these problems and troubles in life...So believers in Him do know they and they understand that they will have pains and sufferings, but also we know about hope...We have this hope, this eternal hope...Often our hope keeps is what keeps us going...This hope is most often found in the strength of our foundation of our faith...The foundation of faith that we build and have built on the Rock of Jesus...This foundation of hope is not only for our current lives, but also our hope that we will live with Him forever, when He judges our troubled and broken world -in His Second Coming...
When I said earlier life was not perfect, and life is not fair -let us look at the life of Jesus...Did we treat Him fair?...We judged Him and found Him guilty and hung Him from a cross to die...He is the Perfect One, who was judged but did not judge us as we took Him to the cross of man's sins...He paid the ultimate price for this problematic, troubled world, and this sinful world with His life...His life spared our lives...
So when we read the story about the faithful builders and the foolish builders, we see a help and this hope that is given to us in our troubles...There is this hope we have...This hope is in our faith, and the strength of our faith in Him...Jesus says the answers to the storms that come into our lives, lies in His words and us putting His words into practice in our lives...The faithful builder has much faith, who has Jesus alive in their lives...Knowing we will have problems and troubles is so obvious -He tells us that we will...The hardest part is doing something when we are in grief and are suffering...We often slow down in our troubles and are mired down and cannot move away from them...When we have these times, it is good to think of Him...Maybe the best thing we can do when problems and troubles happen to us is look to our faith in Him and do our best to bounce back from the troubles, and then to move on from them faithfully...