“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.” Matthew 7:25
The prayer on my lips these past few weeks has been for God to make sense of some things that have fallen off the Rock where my heart is securely fastened and where my life is built upon Him. December was filled with His mysteries and prayers being answered in unforeseen ways that left me quiet and a few times heartbroken. In the crumbling and repositioning of people and circumstances around me, His presence never wavered. In truth, I could always hear Him at work, constructing something new in my home and inside my soul. A sound that both comforted me and perplexed me when I came near for His conversation, but all He gave me were the tools in His hands.
In the Bible, we know God and His Son and His Spirit as the Rock. In Exodus, we drink water from Him in our wilderness. In Deuteronomy, He delights us with revelational honey as He calls Himself the Rock, our Father. He is the Living Stone in 1 Peter, the Jewel of our hearts in Revelation, and Isaiah prophesies that we have been cut from the Rock. We find the Rock as our shelter, dwelling place, fortress, and Commander in battle training all throughout the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, He builds our homes and His church upon it. Praise be to the Rock of our salvation!
If I’ve learned anything this past year, it’s how solid and secure the Lord is and how clear He makes His ways known. He reveals what stays and goes on the Rock of His love in many forms. For me, it’s dreams, praying in the Spirit, and writing His word all over my world. His dreams have been nothing short of a binding rope between me and my children. A few weeks ago, I dreamed about my youngest son facing a teenage temptation and I cried out in the dream and in the natural that God would protect him and all evil would flee. He called a few days later to tell me about a local pastor giving him a ride in a desperate hour and that he knew it was an answer to our prayers. I told him about the dream and he said the very night I dreamed it, he was faced with that exact temptation and withstood it in confidence. These are the dreams that happen every night upon the Rock.
In November, Patrick and I ventured into unknown territory in pursuit of expanding our family. Though the motive was Biblical at its core, it proved to be out of the will of the Father at this time. Those four weeks tested and squeezed our family in such a way that we all needed a few weeks after it to come back around to the realization that it wasn’t going to happen. I’m not sure we’ve ever faced a collective heartache like that before. But, even through the pain, I saw something so beautiful about every single person in my home that I know I would never have laid eyes on had it not been for those precious weeks of our lives. I saw the capacity of their hearts explode with servanthood, sacrifice, and a deep love for the ones who need love the most. For that alone, I thank God.
The deeper my faith in Jesus takes me, the more I’m lost in wonder at all the ways the Rock has shaped and upheld my life. He is the steady ground beneath my feet as this world continually shifts and shakes. He is the light upon my face every morning casting out all darkness and attempted enemy intrusion over my family. He has delivered me back into His resting place when I’ve strayed into the ditches of this life. And He has spoken affirmation into my heart every moment I’ve turned aside to sit at His feet. My prayers in the Spirit strengthen my gratitude for the Rock on which I live and they’ve become the enduring incense rising from the address of my soul. They are the lantern of truth that separates my good intentions from the eternal provision of the will of God. They are a love language spoken and interpreted upon this Rock. Prayers in the Spirit are one of the sweetest sounds that erupt from the hearts of my daughters and their translations have been the confirmation of many of our family decisions. Only on the Rock have I lived out the very sacred words of the Bible in real time. There is truly no place like it in all the world.
This morning of this new year finds me in reverence, bowed before the Rock of Ages. I’m broken in the sight of the Everlasting Rock of righteousness that remains strong in face of my ever-present weakness. To the Living Stone, I robe You in my humble praises and in my deepest adoration.
May we be Your people who shine Your glorious light from the Rock into the world. Let it change our homes, families, and communities for Your glory this year. Oh, God, show us today and forevermore how to live in honor and in awe of who You are and have always been and will evermore be. Amen.
1 Corinthians 10:4 “for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”
1 Peter 2:4 “As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to Him…”
1 Samuel 2:2 “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just.”
Deuteronomy 32:13 “He nourished him with honey from the rock…”
Deuteronomy 32:18 “You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave birth to you.”
Exodus 17:6 “Strike the rock and water will come out of it for the people to drink.”
Isaiah 2:10 “Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty!”
Isaiah 32:2 “Like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.”
Isaiah 51:1 “Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.”
Jeremiah 48:28 “Abandon your towns and dwell among the rocks, you who live in Moab. Be like a dove that makes its nest at the mouth of a cave.”
Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
Psalms 18:31 “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.”
Psalms 62:2 “Truly He is my rock and my salvation.”
Psalms 89:26 “He will call out to me, “You are my Father, my God, and the Rock my Savior.”
Psalms 144:1 “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.”
Revelation 21:11 “It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
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