How To Avoid Fooling Yourself (Part 2)
James 1:22-25
Preached by Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
January 21, 2001
Introduction: In our first look at how we can avoid fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition, we considered how getting control of our anger, getting rid of habitual sin, and getting implanted with the Word of God would head us in the right direction. This morning we’re going to continue our study of this important topic. In James 1:22-25, we find three more things we should do to avoid fooling ourselves about the depth of our walks with Jesus Christ.
What I see in verses 22-25 is not only a continuation of thought from verses 19-21, but also a progression of thought. The things James speaks of in the first half of the passage are preliminary. They are things we need to do before we can even begin to avoid fooling ourselves. Once these things are accomplished, once they become a regular part of our lives, then we can move to the next level in the spiritual growth process. What we will in our verses for this morning are other steps we can take to grow a deeper faith and draw even closer to Jesus Christ.
The three things we’re going to look at this morning, which all build upon the genuine reception of God’s Word in our hearts, if we sincerely and diligently do them, will help us to avoid fooling ourselves about the genuineness of our faith. Once we receive the Word implanted, we need to be intentional to do three things. We need to look at it intently. We need to abide by it continually. And we need to respond to it effectively.
All of what we will learn today, and everything we drew out of verses 19-21, can be distilled down to a common denominator—obedience. Vance Havner, in his book Consider Jesus, had this to say about obedience. “You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it . . . The church suffers today from Christians who know volumes more than they practice” (as quoted in Morgan, p. 588).
Even in the early stages of Christianity, James probably saw this happening among his own flock, among his readers. Remember, James’ ministry was to the Jews. Many of those who first came to faith in Christ were men and women who were well versed in the Law of the Old Testament. They were people who frequented the local synagogue for social and religious purposes. Knowledge of, and strict adherence, to the Law were at the center of some of these new believers’ lives before they came to Christ.
Their awakening to the grace of God in Christ, coupled with years of working day in and day out to try to meet the requirements of the Law, trying to constantly do what it says, which was a human impossibility, could have built in them an interesting attitude. This attitude might have carried with it a thirst for knowledge about their new faith in the Savior, and a desire to simply rest in it.
Some of them may have been so taken in by James, or even the teaching of the apostles, and caught up in the collection of new knowledge, that they were failing to continue to grow beyond their knowledge because they weren’t living what they were learning. I have met many people who have similar attitudes. They covet knowledge, or should I say information, as if it were silver or gold. They store it away for the rainy day; knowing in their hearts that it will never rain hard enough for them to pull it out of the safe and use it, act upon it.
James’ Command to Obey the Word
James issues a command to his readers in verse 22, which, simply put, was a call for them to act upon what they learned from God’s Word. Once these young Christians dealt with the sin issues in their lives, once they sincerely received God’s Word into their hearts, they were to follow through by actively pursuing opportunities to live out what they were learning.
Verse 22 begins, “But prove yourselves doers of the word.” Again, this idea of acting upon what they knew from the Word shouldn’t have been a foreign concept to these recently converted Jews. James’ command shouldn’t be taken as an inference that his readers were not practicing the things they learned from the Word. The words “prove yourselves” in the NASB translation shouldn’t be thought of to mean that James in some way doubted that his readers were doing God’s Word. It can be more literally translated as “keep on striving to be” (MacArthur, p. 79). The command is in the present tense. That means they were to continue doing what they had already started, only they should do it all the more.
James was calling his readers to continue being “doers of the word.” The Greek word for “doer” is poietes. This is the noun form of the verb poieo, which has several related meanings, such as, “do, make, perform, carry out, and execute” (Abbott-Smith, p. 369). The noun form is found only six times in the New Testament, four of which are found in James’ letter.
The fact that James uses the noun form instead of the verb tells us that he is focusing on the individual reader. He is telling each and every reader that he wanted them “to be individuals who habitually submit to and comply with the requirements of God’s Word” (Hiebert, p. 119).
The Jewish believers who read James’ letter may have thought that James was referring back to Israel’s response to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. In Exodus 24:7, we find Moses having just come down from the mountain with the Law of God. The people were excited, at least at this point in their journey. Moses told the people everything God had told him, then he wrote it all in the Book of the Covenant. After making sacrifices to God, Moses read the Book of the Covenant to the people. This was their response. “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”
James’ readers knew that Israel had received the Word of God from Moses and had made promises to keep it. Yet it wasn’t long before we find Moses’ brother, Aaron, leading the people in sacrifices to the golden calf. They heard the Word of the Lord. They promised to keep it, but soon drifted away. Many of the people who followed Moses out of Egypt heard the Word of God, but were never intent on obeying. As James would say, they were “merely hearers who deluded themselves.” Like so many people today, they were fooling themselves into thinking that they were walking with God, when they were really just walking on their own.
The word “merely” in the last half of verse 22 is important. James’ use of the word shows that hearing and doing the word are both very important. All he is saying is that we shouldn’t put all of our eggs in the basket of hearing the Word. We should be both hearers and doers of the Word.
This passage of Scripture, along with the second half of chapter two, are used erroneously by some to claim that James is teaching a works theology, that faith is not enough. The fact that James is telling his readers to be doers and not merely hearers of the Word is not to say that their acting out of what they’ve learned is what saves them. Although he is speaking to Jews, let’s not lose sight of the fact that they are Jewish Christians.
Jesus Himself called for action from those who heard the Word of God and claimed to live by it. Take the rich young ruler, for instance. The young man claimed to be a keeper of all the commandments. He claimed to be a doer of the word. When he asked Jesus what he was still lacking, Jesus told him to go and sell all of his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow Him. The young man walked away downcast because of what Jesus had asked him to do. He was a hearer of the word who had deluded himself, fooled himself, into thinking he was more spiritual, closer to God, than he actually was.
In Luke 11:28, Jesus says, “ . . . blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” James’ contrast between doers and hearers of God’s Word is consistent with Jesus’ own teaching. Jesus’ words, like James’ should not be construed to mean that we have to earn our salvation.
What Jesus was saying in Luke, and what James is telling us in verse 22, is that if your faith is genuine, if you truly have come to faith in Christ, then the result will be an active faith that seeks to please God and obey His commands. The evidence of genuine faith will be not only the desire to follow God, but the actual obeying of His Word with our whole heart and soul, mind and body, in strength and in times of weakness.
Maybe a better understanding of what the word “hearer” means will help. It comes from the Greek word akroates. In ancient times, it “was used of those who sat passively in an audience and listened to a singer or speaker” (MacArthur, p. 80). The word is only found two places in the New Testament¾here in James and in Romans 2:13, where Paul writes, “for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.”
Churches around the world are filled this morning with people who have no intention of going beyond passive listening. They go to a particular church because that’s where their friends are, or because they live in a small town where that’s what every just does on Sunday mornings. Some go because they really enjoy the music or they’re enamored with the speaker. Some go because they think going is enough. They give God a nickel’s worth of their time, expecting a dollar in return.
As James would say, they are deluded. Another way of looking at it is that these people are deceived. Being deceived is “to be blinded to the reality of one’s true religious state” (Moo, p. 90). Within their own minds, or even with their lips if they’re ever taken to task, they are able to come up with arguments that convince themselves, more than anyone else, that they have a right relationship with God. They convince themselves that God doesn’t expect any more from them then they are already giving, which usually amounts to nothing.
They are not doers of the word. They are merely hearers, passive onlookers, who fool themselves into thinking they are Christians. They are the ones who listen to the word until it says something they don’t like. They will either rationalize the teaching away or ignore it outright. They sit in folding chairs or fancy pews with a hard heart, thinking, “I go to a Christian church so that makes me a Christian. I listen to Christian music so that makes me a Christian. I have Christian friends or family so that makes me a Christian.”
These are the people with a good works theology, not James. Those who are only hearers of the word have a faith that is determined and defined by what they do. Whereas, genuine believers do what they do, follow the Word of God, only because they had a genuine faith before they started.
Now, some of you may hear this and think, “Well, what do you mean by all of this? Are you telling me I’m not a Christian? How can you say that?” James, undoubtedly, was hit with some of the same responses to his letter. We can tell by the first word of verse 23 that this was probably the case.
In the NASB, the word “for” can also be translated as “because.” In the remaining verses, James gives us a very descriptive illustration of both the negative consequence for not being a doer of the word, and the positive outcome for obeying God’s Word, for living a life in which we actual do what it says.
James’ Negative Illustration of the Consequences for Just Being a Hearer of the Word
So how can I say that passive hearers of the word are fooling themselves about their spiritual condition? Look at verse 23 and 24. “Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”
James compares the person, any person, who only hears the Word of God with a man looking at himself in a mirror. The idea of “looking” in this verse is not the same as say a glance. The word carries with it the idea of looking intently, looking deeply, or making a careful observation.
James’ illustration pictures a person looking very carefully at himself or herself in a mirror. The readers in James’ world probably understood very well why James chose a word that described taking a careful look. Mirrors in the ancient world were not made of smooth glass. In fact, the glass mirror wasn’t invented until the fourteenth century.
The mirrors in James’ world were made out of polished metals such as iron, bronze, or even gold if you were wealthy enough to afford it. Despite the craftsmen’s best efforts, even the clearest of mirrors were dull in comparison to today’s fine glass.
Handheld mirrors were fairly common in James’ world. This could be what he’s referring to. After all, it would be difficult for someone to simply glance into a handheld mirror. The mirror would first have to be picked up and then intentionally looked into by the holder. But there is another kind of mirror that James may be alluding to.
Some have said that the mirrors in the ancient world were not fastened to a wall or easel. They were most often mounted to the top of a table. So the person looking into the mirror would literally have to bend over as if they were looking at their reflection in a pond. Add this posture to a less than clear surface and you can see why people would have had to look carefully into a mirror if they wanted to see the finer points of their reflection. A simple glance wouldn’t have cut it.
As I studied and meditated on this verse, the picture that came to mind was a scene from a fairly popular movie, some fifteen years ago¾Top Gun. Now, ladies, please don’t think this to be too chauvinistic; but even though there was a romantic edge to the story line, this was a guy movie. Fighter planes, dogfights, competition, heroes and guys you just want to . . .well, you know what I mean¾this movie had it all.
But there was one scene in the movie where we have a good example of the illustration James is giving us in this verse. Tom Cruise, I mean Maverick, had just lost his best friend, Anthony Edwards, I mean Goose, when they lost control of their plane and crashed in the ocean. We find Maverick standing in front of a bathroom mirror, staring deeply into it.
You can just see in his eyes that he is contemplating his entire life, maybe as far back as his first memories as a child. He’s contemplating the wins and the losses, the successes and mistakes, the loss of his friend, who he thinks he is, and who he really is. He’s doing a gut check. He may have been asking himself, “Who am I and what have I become.”
James says that when the hearer looks intently into the mirror, what he sees is his face¾or as the NASB translates it, “his natural face.” But an even closer translation of the original Greek would be “the face of his genesis,” or “the face of his birth.” The reference here is most likely only to the physical features of the man looking into the mirror.
The only idea of “taking a glimpse” that we can possibly take from this illustration is found in the next verse. Verse 24 tells us that once a man looks at himself in the mirror he goes away. What I see here is a man who takes a good enough look at himself in the mirror to see the person he really is. The wording in these verses indicates that the look he got of himself was the type that would call for action, a positive response to what he saw in the mirror.
But verse 24 tells us the man had gone away. James uses the perfect tense here. That means that the going away was an activity that started sometime in the past and had become a regular practice in the man’s life. The man’s typical response after a good look in the mirror was to go away before taking any action.
Having left the mirror, the man “immediately [forgets] what kind of person he was.” Although he had taken a good look at himself and gotten a glimpse of who he really was, the man was quick to forget what he saw and continued to live his life, business as usual. And this serves as the evidence that he was just fooling himself about whom he was.
The fact that he walked away from the mirror without responding to what he saw is just like the person who has deluded themselves into thinking that simply hearing the Word of God is enough. The picture James paints is of “the superficial and temporary effect of a [person’s] listening to God’s Word without letting it direct [his or her] conduct” (Hiebert, p. 121).
Look Intently at the Word of God
Having negatively illustrated the consequences of being a hearer of the word, James moves ahead to give three positive things we can do, three characteristics we should all have in our lives, to make sure we are not fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition, and to become doers of the word.
Verse 25 begins by saying, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty.” We have a picture similar to the one we saw in the last two verses, with one important difference. In this picture, we have a man who is bent over the mirror, intently looking into it and studying what he is seeing, but not walking away and forgetting what he saw.
We can find this idea of looking intently into something in another important place in the Bible. It’s early in the morning on the first day of the week. After a Sabbath’s days rest, a group of women came to an unimpressive tomb with carefully prepared spices that were going to be used to embalm the deceased. When they arrived, they found the stone blocking Jesus’ tomb had been rolled away from the entrance.
They entered the tomb and found Jesus’ body was not there. The Bible tells us that the women were “perplexed.” If this wasn’t enough of a shock, two angels appeared and told them that Jesus had risen from the dead. The women went back to where the eleven remaining apostles were staying.
The women told the apostles, of whom Peter was one, about what they had discovered at the tomb. The apostles, at least most of them, thought that the ladies were speaking gibberish. They didn’t want to believe what the women was telling them was true. Instead of sitting around and contemplating what he had just heard, Peter decided to go see for himself.
In Luke 24:12, we read, “But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home marveling at what had happened.” We know from other accounts in Scripture, like the time Peter denied knowing Jesus, that he wasn’t always the most courageous kind of guy. As I read this passage in Luke, I tried to imagine how Peter might approach the tomb.
As he was running to the tomb, Peter might have been thinking, “What am I doing? There are going to be Roman guards all over the place. They’re going to recognize me as one of Jesus’ disciples.” But he kept running anyway. He had to see for himself.
When I think of Peter looking into the tomb, I can just envision him standing off to the side of the entrance and slowly peering around the corner. I can see him in my mind’s eye scanning the interior of the cold, dark tomb, whose only light was that of the early morning sun, and his gaze being caught by the disheveled, bloodstained burial clothes of his Savior.
I can see Peter staring at the empty garments in that empty tomb and slowly stepping inside to get a closer look. With each step the reality of the Lord’s resurrection became even more apparent. Not only the Lord’s resurrection, but also Peter’s own recent denial of his relationship with Jesus Christ probably filled his mind with thoughts, reflections and questions.
Although Peter did not have the benefit of a reflective mirror in the tomb, he probably got a good look at who he really was as he bent over and looked intently at the outer, earthly garments of His risen King. The Scripture tells us that Peter “went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.” But what was different about Peter’s response and the man who looked in the mirror only to walk away and immediately forget what kind of person he was? Peter didn’t forget.
Peter walked away marveling about the truth of the resurrection. Maybe he realized that there may have been doubt in his heart before he saw the cloths, which were rolled up in a ball and empty, that should have been wrapped around the Lord’s face.
Yes, Peter walked away. But he walked away changed. Peter had received the Word of God implanted. After all, He walked with the Word of God for almost three years. But I think that intentional; thought provoking, self-assessing look into the tomb changed him. How do we know?
Peter acted upon what he saw. He went on to preach one of the greatest sermons ever preached at Pentecost and thousands came to faith in Christ. He was a leader in the early church and proclaimed the gospel everywhere he went. He was beaten and imprisoned for Christ and, ultimately, gave his life on the alter of genuine faith. Peter was not a hearer who deluded himself. He did not warm a pew on Sunday to be a denier of Christ on Monday. Peter was a doer of the word. What he saw in the Word after looking at it intently was a catalyst for action, a catalyst for change in his life. And Jesus Christ received the glory.
Do you want to stop fooling yourself about your spiritual condition? Look intently at the Word of God. Look intently at “the perfect law, the law of liberty.”
Now some people see a word like “law” and immediately think of something judgmental, something restrictive or prohibitive. I can see an unbeliever looking at the law this way. But for those who know Jesus Christ, the Law, the Word of God, brings freedom. It brings liberation.
King David thought so. In Psalm 19:7 we read, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”
“Well,” You might say, “That’s the Old Testament. It was all about rules and regulations.” No, my friends. The Old Testament was all about grace. God gave Israel the law to show them that they had no hope of keeping it through their own initiative. Their works didn’t cut it. Their only hope was grace. Their hope was the future fulfillment of the Law through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Likewise, our only hope is His irresistible grace.
The apostle Paul, who describes himself “a Hebrew of Hebrews [and] as to the Law, a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5b), once saw the law as anything but liberating. But after coming to faith in Christ, he wrote this to the Romans. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:1-2).
This is how James saw the law. He saw the Word of God as providing freedom to those who are in Christ Jesus. He saw it not only as liberating, but as perfect also.
Although we may want to think that James is referring to the Old Testament Law in this verse, he is not. He uses the word “perfect” to distinguish the New Testament Law from that of the Old Testament.
The word “perfect” comes from the Greek word teleios. The word “emphasizes the thought of completeness or maturity. The entire revelation of God . . . has been brought to completion in Christ” (Thomas, p. P35).
Looking intently into the perfect, liberating law of Christ is yet another important step toward Christian maturity and a life of conduct that glorifies Jesus Christ. It is a step we need to take to keep from fooling ourselves.
Abide by the Word of God Continually
Not only must we look intently into the Word of God, but we must also abide by it continually. The Greek word for “abide” is parameno. It’s a combination of two words that individually translate as “beside” and “remain.” If we are going to avoid fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition, if we are going to avoid fooling ourselves about the state of our relationship with Christ, then we must remain close to the Word of God.
If the only time you are spending in God’s Word is the 30-45 minutes you sit here listening to me preach, then you are not abiding by the Word. As I’ve said before, the goal is not simply the gaining of head knowledge.
If our motive is to study to prove ourselves smarter than the next guy, or to earn some superficial, spiritual brownie button, then we are just fooling ourselves if we think these exercises constitute abiding in His Word. Abiding by the word means that you have a hunger to learn the deeper truths of Scripture. It means that you are not just glancing at the Word from time to time. It means when you hear God’s Word or when you read God’s Word, you reflect upon it, meditate on it, absorb it into your heart and mind and make its truth part of whom you are.
However,simple knowledge, even if that knowledge includes the facts contained in Scripture, does not determine our level of spiritual maturity. It is what we do with that knowledge that matters. In order to abide by the Scriptures, in order to remain close to them, then our life needs to be a reflection of the truth it contains.
It’s also important for us to understand that this idea of abiding, or remaining, is not a reference to remaining saved, to remaining a Christian. Once you have received the free gift of salvation, God’s Word promises you that the perfect gift will never be taken away from you. You cannot lose your salvation. However, if you have no desire to remain close to the Word of God, if you hear it or read and forget what it teaches as soon as you leave the room, then it is reasonable to ask yourself whether or not the faith you say you have in Christ is genuine.
The only way we will abide in the truth of God’s Word is if we are first abiding in Jesus Christ. Without a genuine, life-transforming faith in Christ, without a relationship of hope built on Jesus Christ alone and His righteousness, we are fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition. We cannot say that we are abiding in God’s Word if we have not first given our lives to His Son Jesus Christ.
In his first letter to the churches around Ephesus, the apostle John wrote, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming” (I John 2:28). What a wonderful day it will be when Christ returns to take His children home. What a wonderful day it will be for those who remained close to the Word of God, close enough that it impacted their lives, because they had been saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Equally true is the fact that it will not be a wonderful for those who spent their lives merely hearing the Word of God, all the while fooling themselves about their true spiritual condition. Sadly, on that day, those who did not receive the Word of Christ in their hearts will shrink away from Him as they come to the realization that they spent their life living a lie.
Respond to the Word of God Effectively
Look intently into the Word of God. Abide by what it teaches you. This will culminate with the logical end to a realistic progression of spiritual growth—you will actual do what God’s Word says. That’s what we see in Peter’s life. Again, Peter acted upon what he saw in the Word of God, which, for him, was the personal teaching of Jesus Christ.
James reiterates what he said in verses 23 and 24 with the phrase, “not having become a forgetful hearer.” He does this to make the contrast even more powerful with what he is about to say. Instead of forgetting everything he or she hears, the true believer will show the genuineness of his or her faith by being an “effectual doer.”
Now the phrase “effectual doer” is more literally translated as “a doer of a work.” Although the literal translation is a little awkward in English, it stresses a very important point. A genuine faith in Christ is a working faith. James will stress this point in chapter two, which is possibly one of the most debated passages of the New Testament—especially between evangelicals and Roman Catholics.
Good works are not what saves the Christian. However, if a person is truly saved, this fact will be evidenced by the work they do for Christ, and they will do it effectively. Not only do I have to practice what I preach, you have to practice what you hear.
What kind of work are we talking about here? —Every kind. Whether it is serving Christ through serving the church or serving Christ through our vocations, whether it is through Christian character or other activities, if we are not effectively doing the things we learn in Scripture, we are fooling ourselves.
We are very much opposed to the “20/80 Rule” here at Pico Canyon Community Church. The “20/80 Rule” states that 20% of the people do 80% of the work. One of our core values is to provide opportunities for gift-based ministry. We want to be a church that “encourages and equips our members to participate in full and/or part-time ministry, which is consistent with their unique design and giftedness.”
A sign of spiritual maturity in each of our lives is when we go from appreciating the work everyone else does to being the people appreciated for the work we do. Each and every believer is endowed with a spiritual gift, by the Holy Spirit, which is designed to bring encouragement and support to the body of Christ. It is the obligation of every person who has a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ to ask God to make our gifts known to us and then employ those gifts for His glory and the furtherance of His kingdom.
This idea of being an effectual doer of God’s Word also extends outside the walls of the church. This is not to say we should neglect serving the body of Christ because we are serving and glorifying God in our secular vocations. It is not an either/or proposition. If we are members of the body of Christ and work outside the church we should be glorifying God by effectively doing the things we learn from His word in both places. If we are one kind of Christian on Sunday mornings and another kind of Christian Monday through Friday, we are fooling ourselves about our spiritual health.
“In January, 1995, according to an article written by Gary Thomas, J. Robert Ashcroft had fewer than forty-eight hours to live, but he was holding on to life, hoping to see his son, John Ashcroft, sworn into the U.S. Senate the following day. [John Ashcroft, as we all know by now, is in the process of being confirmed as our next Attorney General]. As family and friends gathered in Washington for a small reception, J. Robert Ashcroft asked his son to play the piano while everyone sang, ‘We Are Standing On Holy Ground.’”
“After the song, the frail old man spoke some powerful words: ‘John, I want you to know that even Washington can be holy ground. Wherever you hear the voice of God, that ground is sanctified. It’s a place where God can call you to the highest and best.’”
“Wherever we are in our vocation, if Jesus is Lord of our lives, that place is a holy place of service for Him” (Thomas, “Working for All It’s Worth,” Moody, July/August 1998, p. 13, as quoted in Morgan, p. 796).
The End Result
The person who listens intently to the Word of God, the person who abides continually by the Word of God, the person who does effectively the things they learn from the Word of God, “will be blessed in what he does.” What an incredible encouragement that is. Not only will we avoid fooling ourselves about our spiritual condition, or even our position in Christ, if we do these things; we can also live with the assurance of future blessings.
The idea of future blessings is two-fold. Not only will we enjoy the future blessing that comes by being forever in the Lord’s presence, in heaven, but this incredible assurance includes blessings in the here and now—blessings that will come each time we get control of our anger, get rid of habitual sin in our lives, get implanted with the Word of God, listen to the Word intently, abide by the Word continually, and do what the Word says effectively. Don’t think of what I just said as a long laundry list of things you must do to be a Christian. Look at these things as opportunities to receive God’s blessing because you’re a Christian.
One of the blessings we will receive from God if we stop fooling ourselves about our spiritual lives and begin anew to live according to His Word is that we will gain wisdom. With that wisdom will come a very firm spiritual foundation. It will be a foundation so firm, so sturdy, that neither the storms of life, nor the winds of change and uncertainty will be able to shake it.
Let’s bow our heads and pray. And as we do that, let me close with these words from our Savior found in Matthew, chapter 7. “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock” (Matt. 7:24:25).
