Matthew 7

Matthew 7

This chapter, I tell you what. It's been a real eye-opener. 

It's funny how you think you know/understand something & then life shows you how much you don't.

Back-story:
I was pregnant with Abigail & got the chance to preach at my church. I believe God spoke to me to talk on this chapter because He knew I was going to need it. 

I went ahead & preached about not being shaken when the rain hit & how your house won't fall when it's built on the Rock.

All good & true stuff.

Yet, as the next week began - there I was laying in the hospital fighting for my life, while my little girl got whisked off to a neonatal intensive care unit to fight for hers. 

As the story goes, I obviously got better & if you've read any earlier blogs you'll know that my sweet girl went to Heaven after 45 days. 

I can honestly say now, I didn't even know the depth of what I was preaching. I can't tell you how many times I've read those Scriptures, heard them preached about, & talked about them myself & never EVER realized what they were saying until now. 

Somehow, I would always gloss over the part about the rain & wind - like those were just poetic phrases & didn't really have any meaning. Somehow, I always thought that the only thing of importance in those Scriptures was that my house was standing because I'm built on Christ....and somehow that translated to me that NOTHING BAD WOULD EVER HAPPEN. 

When in all obviousness (hindsight is 20/20 as they say!), He was speaking right at me about the storm that was about to come & I completely missed it. 

Why am I sharing this? 2 reasons:

1. bad things will happen, BUT if you are built on the ROCK your house will stand. It's going to be hard & painful, but you'll last. I did. My husband did. My family did. God is faithful. 

2. we can't go into the Scriptures with rose-colored glasses or preconceived notions that cause us to gloss over things. They are God's words, not just a poetic book to make His children feel good. It's a map to life. It's the key to surviving in this world. It's a guide to knowing about His promises for a happy & blessed life & how to walk in victory after the battles. 

Without the Word of God we're left to our own understanding to deal with life. NO THANKS! Serving God doesn't mean a life without problems, but it does mean that I have His help getting through them & I'll take that EVER SINGLE TIME!

-Amie