Let's take a look at Matthew 7 today. Jesus is summing up his great "Sermon on the mount" teaching with these words.
"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. 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. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Notice the circumstance were not different for either man. Both had the rain come down, the streams rise and the wind beating against their homes. The only difference was the foundation.
I don't know much about building houses, but I'm pretty sure you have to create the foundation first. You can't run back, after everything is in place and then decide to build one.
But sometimes we try to live our lives that way. We make choices using our human reason at best and our emotions at worst. We go day in, day out, living our lives that way, then we attempt to shift ourselves back to living according to the Word of God because we see things are about to tumble.
Like a team trying to build the airplane while it is in the air. That's just heading for a disaster.
There is only one way to have that foundation, it's to tear everything down and build again. This can be a painful process, but when (not if) the storms of life come our way again, we will be ready.
